

























































Class_ j 4- 0 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 











/ 


®.S. 




THE GREAT CITIES 


OF THE 

MODERN WORLD. 




The Great Cities 


M ODERN WORLD 



HELEN AINSLIE SMITH 


{HAZEL SHEPARD) 



WITH TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW YORK 

GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS 

9 Lafayette Place 





IN UNIFORM STYLE 

Copiously Illustrated. 


Qr 


ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS AMERICANS 

HEROES OF AMERICAN DISCOVERY. 

GREAT CITIES OF THE ANCIENT 
WORLD. 

GREAT CITIES OF THE MODERN 
WORLD. 

PAUL AND VIRGINIA. 

ILLUSTRATED POEMS AND SONGS 
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 

LABOULAYE’S ILLUSTRATED FAIRY 
TALES. 

SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF AMERI¬ 
CAN BOYS. 

THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS. 

LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBIN¬ 
SON CRUSOE. 

THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON. 

LAMB’S TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. 

WOOD’S ILLUSTRATED NATURAL 
HISTORY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 


All bound in handsome lithographed double 
covers ; also in cloth. 

George Routledge 6° Sons, 

9 Lafayette Place, New York. 



Copyright, 1885, 

By Joseph L. Blamire. 









PREFACE. 


There is a saying, as old as it is true, that he who would be a writer must first of all 
have something to write—something new to tell, or some new or better way of putting 
forth what is already known. This volume has not been called into existence as some¬ 
thing new, but because there was not, so far as could be found, any work devoted en¬ 
tirely to a description of the outward appearance and real position of the Great Cities of 
the Modern World. A metropolis represents a focus of power; the chief forces of a 
country’s civilization are centered in its great towns; and it has been believed that in 
giving a description of the large cities of the chief countries of the world, and bringing 
them together in a classified volume, there will be presented in a condensed form the 
leading features, not only of the great cities of the world, as a whole, but also of the 
civic national life of all the important countries of the globe. The endeavor has been 
to prepare a book instructive and interesting to readers of all ages, but especially to 
place before young people a clear and, in a measure, complete idea of the greatest cities 
of our time, rated according to size, importance in intellectual, commercial, and manu¬ 
facturing power, and descriptive of population and architectural appearance. In all 
cases the aim has been to make the leading features—either of a single city or a national 
group—stand out prominently and leave the strongest impression. To combine all these 
characteristics into a single volume upon so broad a subject it has been necessary to 
consult a multitude of authorities; and, although these are far too many for the briefest 
enumeration, it is but just to acknowledge that valuable aid has been received from the 
standard encyclopaedias and from nearly all the leading works of reference of both 
special and general character whose scope comes in any way within that of the Great 
Cities of the Modern World. 

Hazel Shepard. 

Orange, N. J., September , 1885. 




CONTENTS 


Russia:— 

St. Petersburg 
Moscow 

Lower Novgorod 
Riga 
Odessa 
England:— 

London . 
Liverpool 
Manchester 
Birmingham 
Leeds 
Sheffield 
Bristol 
Bradford 
Newcastle 
Eton 
Rugby 
Oxford 
Cambridge 
France:— 

Paris 

Lyons 

Marseilles 

Nimes . 

Toulouse 

Bordeaux 

Nantes . 



7 

io 

i9 

28 

28 

3 ° 

46 

5° 

5 2 

55 

56 
58 

58 

59 

59 

60 

60 

61 

63 

95 

97 

101 

101 

102 

103 



IV 


Contents . 


France:— 

Havre 

Rouen 

Lille 

St. Etienne 

Germany:— 

Berlin 

Hamburg 

Breslau 

Dresden 

Munich 

Bremen 

Bremerhaven 

Frankfort 

Cologne . 

Leipzic 

Magdeburg 

Scandinavia:— 

Copenhagen . 
Stockholm 
Christiania, . 

Netherlands:— 
Amsterdam 
Rotterdam . 
The Hague 
Schenevingen 
Utrecht 
Leyden 
Haarlem . 

Belgium:— 

Brussels 

Antwerp 

Ghent 

Liege . 

Bruges 

Mechlin 

Louvain 


PAGE 


104 

104 

107 

107 

108 

132 

!35 

136 

139 

141 

142 

142 

143 

144 
146 

148 

151 

152 

155 

I 5 8 

160 

161 

161 

162 
162 

165 

168 

176 

176 

176 

176 


Contents. 


v 


Switzerland:— 
Geneva 
Basle 
Berne . 
Ireland:— 

Queenstown 
Belfast 
Dublin 
Scotland:— 

Edinburgh 
Glasgow 
Dundee 
Aberdeen 
Spain:— 

Madrid 

Barcelona 

Malaga 

Valencia 

Seville 

Granada 

Cadiz 

Portugal:— 

Lisbon 
Oporto 
Italy:— 

Rome 

Naples 

Milan 

Turin 

Palermo . 

Florence 

Genoa 

Venice 

Austria-Hungary:— 
Vienna - . 
Buda-Pesth 
Prague 
Trieste 


PAGE 

177 

l82 

182 

I84 
186 
186 

189 

193 

194 
194 

!95 

200 

202 

203 

204 
207 

209 

210 
213 

216 

230 

232 

234 

2 35 
2 35 
242 
244 

249 

262 

264 

266 





VI 


Contents . 


The Levant:— 

Constantinople 

Damascus 

Cairo 

Alexandria 
India:— 

Bombay 
Calcutta 
Madras . 
China:— 

Pekin 
Hangchau 
Canton 
Nanking . 
Suchan 
Shanghai . 
Tientsin 
Si-ngau 
Fuchan 
Japan:— 

Tokio 
Osaka 
Kioto 
Miako 
Sai-kiyo . 
South America:— 
Rio de Janeiro 
Buenos Ayres 
Santiago 
Lima 
Canada:— 

Montreal 
Toronto 
Quebec . 
Ottawa 
Mexico 

United States:— 
New York City 



PAGE 


267 

277 

280 

285 

288 

295 

298 


• 3 °° 
3° 8 

. 3 IQ 
3 12 
. 3 12 
3 T 4 
. 3 i 5 
3 l6 
. 3 l6 

3 i 9 

• 3 26 
3 2 7 

• 3 2 7 

327 

. 328 

330 

• 33 i 

331 

• 333 

336 

337 
337 
339 


343 


Contents . 

United States:— 

Brooklyn .... 
Buffalo ... 

Albany .... 

Rochester .... 

Troy .... 

Syracuse .... 

Boston .... 
Cambridge .... 

Lowell , . 

Worcester .... 
Fall River .... 

Providence .... 
New Haven .... 

Hartford .... 
Portland . 

Philadelphia .... 
Pittsburgh . . . . 

Allegheny .... 
Scranton . ... 

Reading .... 
Harrisburg .... 

Wilmington .... 
Newark .... 

Paterson .... 
Jersey City .... 

Hoboken .... 
Baltimore .... 

Washington 

Chicago .... 

St. Louis . ... 

Cincinnati .... 
Cleveland . ... 

Louisville .... 

Detroit . ... 

Milwaukee .... 

San Francisco 

New Orleans .... 


vii 

PAGE 

366 

368 

370 

371 

372 

372 

372 

384 

384 

385 

386 

386 

387 

388 

389 

39 ° 

397 

398 

398 

398 

399 

399 

399 

400 

400 

400 

400 

402 

406 

4 i 5 

420 

421 

422 

422 

423 

424 

426 





























' 















Great Cities of the Modem World. 


RUSSIA. 


T HE Empire of Russia lies in Europe and in Asia ; from Sweden, the Baltic, Prussia 
and Austria, eastward to the Pacific ; from the Arctic Ocean to China, Turkestan, 
the Caspian Sea, Persia, Turkey and the Black Sea. This is a very large part of the globe,— 
nearly one twenty-sixth of it, and more than one-sixth of the land of the whole earth. 
The population of this great empire is about one hundred millions. The principal cities 
are in Europe, where the “ smaller half ” of Russia lies. 

St, Petersburg is the capital, and largest city of the country. Its population is 
nearly nine hundred thousand, which is greater than Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It 
stands upon the lower branches of the clear blue Neva River. Before the time of 
Peter the Great, this was only a tract of marshes ; but the great “ reformer ” said his 
country needed “ a window by which the Russians might look into civilized Europe.” 
So the marshes were drained, and in 1703 a magnificent city was begun. Most of it lies 
on the southern bank of the river ; the remainder is scattered over the northern bank 
and the islands. 

Fourteen arms of the Neva flow through St. Petersburg, beside many smaller 
branches, and seven canals. The different parts of the town are connected by bridges. 
In summer time, little two-oared ferry-boats ply from one shore to another, while small 
steam launches are ready for greater distances. In winter the scene is very different. 
Then we see the snow-picture, which lasts from October until April. Boats are useless. 
Bridges are largely neglected. King Winter binds the streams, even the “ Big Neva,” 
with a coating of ice that will bear the heaviest of burdens. All the people who do not 
walk or skate are carried about over streams and through the snow-paved streets by 
sledges and hand sleighs. It is a beautiful sight then to see the splendid palace-lined 
streets with their red, stucco-ornamented fronts and gilded balconies glittering with ice, 
while the snow-white roadway is filled with handsome sleighs drawn by spirited horses, 
who toss their plumed heads and jingle merry sounding bells. 




ID 


Cities of the World. 


The most important of the islands of St. Petersburg, is Basil Island, or Vassiliostrof. 
It is connected with the southern bank of the river, in one place, by a beautiful, large 
stone bridge, named after the Emperor Nicholas. The shore of Vassiliostrof is lined 
with quays and shipping docks ; and upon it are the Custom House and Exchange, beside 

some fine university 
and academy build¬ 
ings ; for many of the 
most important insti¬ 
tutions of Russia are 
in or near St. Peters¬ 
burg. On another 
island stands the pic¬ 
turesque Fortress and 
Cathedral of St. Peter 
and St. Paul, where 
the Imperial Family 
are buried. There 
are dungeons under¬ 
neath the church, 
used for a State 
Prison. It is a massive 
building, with slender, 
gilded spire almost 
four hundred feet 
high. 

Every thing in St. 
Petersburg seems 
planned to be large. 
The streets are broad ; 
the squares, palaces 
and public buildings 
are all on a grand 
scale. It stands on a 
noble river, an Impe¬ 
rial city, the capital 
and European door¬ 
way to the largest empire in the world. Even the private houses are built in such 
large blocks that many of them hold twenty separate families. 

Seen covered with a layer of hoar frost, the majestic, gilded dome and red pillars 



STREET IN ST. PETERSBURG. 
















ST, PETERSBURG. 




























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































12 


Cities of the World. 



of St. Isaac’s Cathedral are one of the most beautiful sights in the city. The lofty doors are 
always open ; and although the visitor may think the inside gaudy and in poor taste, 
it is certainly magnificent. From the richest of Russia’s limitless mines there has been 
brought countless precious stones, metals and marbles, which by skillful hands have been 
wrought into glittering and showy decorations. The Russians are also very proud of 
the Kazan church, which stands on one of the wide streets that spread out fan-like 
from the great Admiralty Place. This square is on the south bank of the Neva, and 
contains one mass of buildings for naval use, which make a noble fa£ade along the river 
for half a mile. Close by it is the Palace Square and Alexander’s Column, which is a 


THE EXCHANGE, OR PALACE OF THE BOURSE, ST. PETERSBURG. 

shaft made of one piece of red granite eighty feet high. It is adorned with bronze made 
of captured Turkish cannon, and altogether one hundred and fifty feet high. 

St. Petersburg is sometimes called the City of Palaces, for there are a great many other 
magnificent homes beside the famous Winter Palace ; and, although there is not another 
in the world so large, some of the smaller ones in the city are thought to be more beauti¬ 
ful. The Hermitage, a palace connected by several galleries with the Winter Palace, 
has a very fine collection of paintings, and the grand city squares abound with works 
of art in statuary and monuments. The noblest of them all is the statue of Peter the 





THE KREMLIN, OR CITADEL OF MOSCOW. 











































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































14 


Cities of the World. 


Great on horseback, in Peter’s Square, which is opposite St. Isaac s and close to the 
river. 

In the Russian capital there are large manufactories, and trade is carried on in 
tapestry, glass, porcelain, malachite ornaments, and many other things. One-third of 
all Russia’s foreign trade is at St. Petersburg. The port of the city is at Cronstadt, not 
far away, on the Gulf of Finland. The waters of the Neva will not admit large vessels 
to St. Petersburg, although the floods sometimes rise high enough to do the city a great 
deal of damage. 

By whichever way one leaves the capital, unless he go by water, he must pass 



ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ST. PETERSBURG. 

through several hundred miles of uninhabited forest and morass. To the south-east, is 
a carefully cultivated and fertile country in the center of which, about 400 miles 
from St. Petersburg, is Moscow. Very rich and magnificent it appears from a distance 
this “ city of domes in the air ” with its cupolas of many colors, blazing in silvering and 
gilding and the battlements of the Kremlin high in the center. It is the home of about 
seven hundred and fifty thousand people, which is nearly three thousand more than there 
are in Brooklyn, New York. It stands on the “ mossy river,” Moskva, a branch of the 









































Moscow. 


15 

Volga. Until the year 1712 Moscow was the capital of Russia. It is now the wealthiest 
city of the Empire. 

The Kremlin, which is the center of the town, stands on the north bank of 
the river, within a wall, guarded by eighteen towers. Five gates open from it into the 
"ity- They are all wonderful. Over the principal one, called the Redeemer Gate, is a 
picture of Christ ; and the Emperor, even, takes off his hat and bows as he passes through. 
Above the St. Nicholas Gate is a figure of the patron Saint of Russia, and a large square 



STATUE OF PETER THE GREAT, MOSCOW. 

tower. The fortifications of the Kremlin inclose the monuments and important build¬ 
ings of Moscow. 

Here is the Cathedral of the Annunciation, over whose precious paved floors of jasper, 
agate and carnelian, many processions have passed, to the baptism of an imperial baby, 
who, in later years has led his bride to the same altar. Perhaps, in the Cathedral of the 
Assumption, near by, he was crowned ruler of all the Russias, the “ Czar ” before Peter 
the Great’s time, the “ Emperor,” since : and after a stormy or a peaceful rule the Czar 





























16 Cities of the World. 

was laid to rest in the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, but the Emperors lie buried in 
the Fortress at St. Petersburg. 

That great bell one sees standing on the ground, is the famous Czar Kolokol, 
the largest bell in the world. It fell in the fire of 1737 and was injured. Until 1837 it 
was left sunk in the earth. Then it was raised, and made the dome of an under-ground 
chapel. Moscow has also another large bell which is in use. It weighs eighty tons, but 
is a little more than half the size of the “ great ” bell. 



It is two hundred feet, up the Tower of Ivan, near by, to the cross on that 
immense gilded dome, which contains a chime of thirty-four bells. From the Tower one 
looks down upon the ancient city, with its painted green roofs and picturesque turrets, and 
sees that its streets run in all directions from the Kremlin—like spokes from the hub of a 
wheel. About a mile from the walls of the Citadel a broad boulevard makes a circle 
about the Kremlin, on the north side of the river, crossing all the streets. About a half- 
mile further another is seen running the same as the first, but, of course, making a much 


























Moscow . 


17 



larger circle. To the east of the Kremlin, inside the first boulevard, is the Kitai 
Gorod, or the walled “ Chinese Town,” made up of the principal stores of the city 
and the great bazar, which covers three squares, but is divided into many small shops. 


CHURCH IN MOSCOW. 

Also within this boulevard is the Belvi Gorod, or “ White Town,” with its many 
public buildings. The new marble cathedral, the great “ Temple of the Saviour,” stands 
here. It is just finished, but was begun in 1812 as a monument to the success of Russia 












i8 


Cities of the World, 


against the invasion of Napoleon. It is in the form of a Greek cross, and is large enough 
to hold ten thousand people at once. The inside is said to be the most beautiful 
and gorgeous in the world. St. Saviour's dome is three hundred and forty feet high. 

Beyond the first 
boulevard is the 
Zemlianoi Gorod, 
or the “ Earthen 
Town,” which was 
given this name, 
long ago when the 
city was surround¬ 
ed by an earthen 
rampart. 

The ancient cap¬ 
ital of Russia, like 
the new, has fine 
libraries and muse¬ 
ums and a famous 
university; its 
churches are said 
to number “ forty 
times forty.” It 
does more manu¬ 
facturing than any 
other town in 
Russia, making 
woolen, cotton and 
silk cloths, jewel¬ 
ry, glass, porcelain 
and other valuable 
articles. Trade 
is carried on by 
railroads and ca¬ 
nals in summer 
and by sledges in 
winter. 

The Russians do a large part of their buying and selling at fairs, held regularly in 
certain parts of the Empire. The most important of these is held every summer at 
Nijni Novgorod. 



THE GREAT THEATER, MOSCOW. 


































Novgorod. 19 

This city is not the Novgorod near the Gulf of Finland, the most ancient and a very 
interesting town of Russia ; but JVijni\ or Lower Novgorod in another part of the 
country. 

Lower Novgorod is a picturesque town of two parts about 260 miles east of 
Moscow, where the Volga and Oka rivers meet. On the south side of the Volga, the 
fortified “ upper town ” stands, and in it the citadel or Kremlin, two cathedrals and the 
palaces of the governors. # On the flat ground below it is the other part of the town, made 


THE WINTER PALACE, ST. PETERSBURG. 

up mostly of wooden buildings. This is where the business is done, for as long as the 
rivers are open Lower Novgorod has a large trade, especially in manufactured goods. 
It is connected by the rivers with twenty-four of the states of Central Russia, with the 
Baltic, the White and the Caspian Seas ; so that the town people can easily find regular 
markets for their famous Russian leather, steel goods, wax candles, pottery and many 
other wares, beside the numbers of ships they build. 

Crossing the bridge of boats over the Oka, the Fair Ground is reached. It is a broad 
space, the shape of a triangle, between the Oka and the Volga Rivers, certain to be dry 


















20 


Cities of the World. 


only in summer time, and lined on both shores with ten miles of wharves, sometimes 
piled hundreds of feet high with goods. 

There are three annual fairs held in the town every year. The first two are of small 
account compared to the third, which begins the 13th of July and does not close until 
the 7th of September. This is by far the largest annual fair in the world. 

As the time for the opening draws near men gather at the city from every part 
of Europe, Asia and northern Africa. A woman is rarely seen at the Fair, it is 
said. The Fair Ground is well built, upon sewers of hewn stone ; and the forty miles of 
streets are kept clean and pure by the watchful police. The enormous market hall 
has sixty blocks of buildings for booths, which are separated into more than twenty-five 
hundred apartments by fire-proof walls. Usually there are about forty-five thousand 
people living in Lower Novgorod ; but during the Fair the population is eight times 
its regular size. So, extra churches and buildings of all kinds are kept for the visitors 
throughout the town. The rivers are so crowded with boats that the water can scarcely 
be seen. There are fully fifty thousand people living on the water during the Fair. 

The governor of the province makes his home in the midst of the bustle and confu¬ 
sion from the day the Fair opens until its close. All around are showy booths and 
squares, overloaded with goods for sale,—useful and ornamental, and all to be had at 
“ wonderful bargains.” 

Behind the booths are restaurants and the little tea-houses, always to be found in 
Russian towns. The tea-houses are full of small tables ; and from morning till night 
there are merchants and their customers sitting there, making bargains over cups of tea. 
One sees great numbers of foreigners here, and men from every part of the Empire. 

The Russians say that their countrymen are not divided into classes ; but there is 
a difference among the people of Russia as there is, according to circumstances, in every 
country. 

The highest class in Russia are the nobles and landed proprietors. They have 
usually the most money, and if they do not serve the State, live upon the rents and 
products of their property. They used to own serfs or slaves ; but in 1861 all the 
slaves in Russia were made free, and now the proprietor’s former slaves are his tenants 
or his servants. The merchants make another class, and are the larger part of the 
visitors at the Fair. They are usually well educated, live in towns, and some of them 
have very rich homes. The greater part of the people of Russia are peasants. They 
are active, work hard, and are healthy, cheerful and kind. The peasant always has 
a bushy beard, and wears a round hat, and a coarse coat of drugget, reaching to the 
knee. (This coat is made of wool and skins in winter.) His trowsers are of thick, 
coarse linen, and instead of a stocking, the Russian peasant wears a woolen cloth bound 
round his leg. His shoes or sandals are made of bark, and fastened round the ankles 
with strips of bark. You would find his home in some small square cottage, which 



NIJNI NOVGOROD 























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































22 


Cities of the World ' 


he made himself of whole trees, piled one on another, and fastened together at the four 
corners. The gaps are filled in with moss ; and the roof, in the form of a penthouse, 
is covered with bark of trees under a layer of turf and mold. He cut out his windows 
and those very small doors after the house was finished. The greatest differences that 
are seen in the Russian people are marked according to where they come from ; for 
the Empire is made up of many nations unlike each other, and each with its own 
customs and characteristics. 

The police, who keep close watch here in Novgorod that no one defile the streets, 
or in any way disturb the health or peace, are Cossacks. 

The Cossacks are natives of the southern part of the Empire, which is sometimes 
called “ Little Russia.” Their wealth is mainly in horses and cattle ; but their bravery 
and warlike spirit has long made them the soldier-race of the people. They are famous 
horsemen, and can stand fatigue, cold, hunger and thirst with great strength and courage. 
The men spend most of their time away from home in military duty ; so the strong and 
handsome Cossack women take care of the families and manage the villages, which are 
prosperous and enterprising, surrounded by vineyards, cornfields, and pastures for great 
herds of cattle. Cossack homes are described as clean and refined, and the people as 
intelligent and hospitable. 

The Tartars are another people of southern Russia. They once claimed a large 
part of Central Asia ; but are now confined to Turkestan and the countries near it. 
They, too, are powerful and warlike ; but are also fierce and roving natures. Tartars 
are seldom tall, and usually thin. Their faces are small and fresh looking. A Tartar 
has a small mouth, and small, dark, lively eyes. His shaved head is covered with a 
leather cap over which is a red-crowned bonnet or cap. A great many of them are 
seen here. The poorer men have an inner coat of a sort of linen, covered by a coarse 
cloth gown ; but the rich Tartar has a fine outside coat of cloth over his inner coat of 
lustrous silk. They bring quantities of honey with them ; but most of their trade is 
barter, for they are little used to handling money. 

From western Russia are seen the Poles, many of whom are Jews. They too raise 
large quantities of bees ; but send most of the honey to foreign ports. The Polish mer¬ 
chants at Lower Novgorod do a great business in wool, cotton, linen, liquors, oil, vinegar, 
paper, glass, earthenware and other things. 

Poland was once an independent kingdom, but was united to the Empire in 1864. 
The country people raise horses, cattle, pigs and sheep, beside their bees. Poland is very 
thickly settled, and an important part of modern Russia, especially in manufactories. 

Talking earnestly with a Chinese tea merchant, a Finn is seen, known by his bearded 
face, and by his long hair, hanging loose under a felt hat. He belongs to another 
important race of Russia. His home is in the northwestern part of the Empire, which 
took Finland from Sweden in 1809. 


Russian Types . 


23 



The Finland merchants are mostly dressed in coarse cloth made by the women of 
the families ; but, as this is a holiday time, some of them have on their best clothes, which 
are manufactured cloth, 
finer than the home-spun 
goods. Among the Finns 
here many wear wooden 
shoes ; some have shoes 
that are made of skin, and 
others of tree-bark laced 
together. They all wear 
a leathern girdle, some of 
them are untanned, in 
which a knife is stuck. 

Occasionally a Ger¬ 
man or a Scandinavian is 
seen, who belongs to some 
of the Baltic provinces. 

There is a Siberian, an 
Archangel merchant, 
with furs for sale; a 
Bukharian with turquoise 
and other beautiful gems ; 

Kalmuck and Kirghis, 
who have come with wild 
ponies and Siberian iron ; 
and Persians with per¬ 
fume stands. Merchants 
of western Europe are 
selling watches, pipes, 
jewelry ; and Orientals 
have come across the bor¬ 
der with their curiously- 
wrought ornaments and 
bric-a-brac. 

At the Fair every one A gr °up ° F Russians. 

is in earnest. The faces of all are thoughtful and serious. The reason is because most 
of these merchants and traders and bankers count on this annual fair for their fortunes. 
Some of them come from so great a distance that they spend nearly all the year going 
to Lower Novgorod and returning home. 












24 


Cities of the World, 


Everything is very systematically arranged in the market-hall and bazars, accord¬ 
ing to the classes of goods ; but on the outskirts, monks, jugglers, beggars and venders, 
clad in all sorts of garments, and babbling in all tongues, make a scene of noise and 
confusion. 

The Empire is divided into provinces or governments, which are looked after by 
governors appointed by the Emperor. There are few towns in Russia, but many 
villages. The villages are governed according to the commune. 

A village, or commune, is something like a large family, with the Village Elder at the 
head of it, and the Village Assembly to regulate it, chosen by the people. All the people 
who belong to a certain commune are responsible alike for the debts and taxes of the 
whole village. All have a share in the farm and pasture land, which they care for sep¬ 
arately, and all are protected from losing the use of their land. They must all pay into 
the common treasury a certain sum of money. This binds the people of a commune 
very much together. If one man lets his business run down and gets out of money, all 
the members of the commune can complain, because, together, they must pay his taxes. 
The good land of a commune belongs to the community in common, and no part of it to 
any one member ; so every household by itself, as well as all of them together, is respon¬ 
sible for all the money that the commune has to pay every year into the Imperial Treasury. 
The amount is supposed to be set according to the number of men and boys in the 
commune. 

This is the general plan of the system of village government in Russia called 
the Mir, or Village Community ; but many communes follow out in the details, 
a plan for themselves. However these may differ in various parts of the Empire, 
all are subject to one great power, the Emperor. He has no limit to his will. His 
Empire is a despotism, and there is no Congress or Parliament to question or control 
him. Every Russian subject knows that if he break the law, the Emperor may 
put him to death, without hearing or trial, the moment his crime is known. But 
worse than death, the Russian fears the punishment of being banished to Siberia. 

Although this name is usually given to all of Russia in Asia, the Russians 
themselves only use it for the northern part. Even this is much larger than 
Europe, and has as many people living in it as all of the Netherlands—nearly four 
millions—more than one-half of which are exiles. 

Part of the country is barren, and most of the time covered with ice and 
snow; but there are portions rich and fertile which give the eastern world its great sup¬ 
ply of grain, and afford good pasture to flocks of sheep and droves of horses, 
reindeer and cattle. 

But the exile only thinks of the long, dreary marches, carrying his chains from one 
post to another, over the barren country. If he does not die on the way of cold, 
hunger, filth or abuse, the worst of criminals finally reaches his journey’s end in 



RIGA. 


















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































26 


Cities of the World. 

some of the central or western provinces. Here, he is put to work for life in one 
of those rich mines beneath the ice-bound surface of dreary Siberia, to get out 
the gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, antimony, iron or arsenic, which seems to be 
deposited in unlimited quantities. 

If he is not one of the blackest of the criminals, he may be taken to a less 
dismal spot, and be put to work at carving or making into beautiful filigree, the 



RUSSIAN PENAL COLONY. 


precious metal brought to the light by his brother prisoner. There is plenty of material 
for all kinds of such work ; for, beside the precious metals, Siberia yields topazes and 
emeralds, porphyry, jasper and malachite, which are made by cunning hands into objects 
of wonderful beauty and art. 

There is still another class of Siberian exiles. Those who are guilty of smaller 
crimes are taken to comfortable places, and under the eye of the police, do what 



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28 Cities of the World. 

they please. Most of them are trappers, for Russia has a wealth of furred animals 
in her north country. 

A great deal of petroleum and salt come also from Siberia. Salt is so plentiful that 
it hardens on the surface of some of the lakes in summer, so that men and even horses 
cross, as if it were ice. There is scarcely any manufacturing here, no large cities, and 
little farming. 

The native Siberians are short, yellow complexioned, and have deep red hair. They 
are a wild people who get their living by hunting and fishing. Their principal wealth is 
in reindeer, which they keep to draw their burdens. One man sometimes owns a held 
of two hundred. They keep no other animals. The people dress in skin garments 
that cover them entirely, head and feet. Some of the tribes nearer the central part of 
Asia are more cultivated ; but it is usually the settlers, not the natives, who till the 
earth. 

The great yields of Russia are from the north and east ; but the ports and cities are 
in Europe. 

The second great port on the European side of the Empire is Riga. The city 
stands about 370 miles from St. Petersburg, on the river Dwina, eight miles from 
the Gulf of Riga. It has a population of about one hundred and seventy thousand, 
and is one of the most important manufacturing and commercial cities of the Empire. 
St. Peter’s Church, the Castle, or Dorn, and many fine public buildings are very inter¬ 
esting. The gloomy “ Old Town” shows traces of the ancient German rule ; but the 
new quarters are handsome and extensive. Riga’s busy cotton and woolen mills are 
large and growing ; and, besides being the most noted of all Russian towns for ship¬ 
building, it is in a good position to have a large trade with central and. eastern Europe. 
The country is constantly sending in for shipment great quantities of flax, timber, hemp 
and grain. But the great grain port of Europe is Odessa. It has about two hundred 
thousand population, which is some less than San Francisco, California. It is built 
on a table-land, ending in bluffs on the northwest coast of the Black Sea, and is described 
as a town of “ straight streets and butter-colored houses.” There is a famous Russian 
University here, and among the fine city buildings are the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, 
the Admiralty, and the Custom House. A promenade is along the face of the cliffs, 
where the statue of the benefactor of the town, the Due de Richelieu stands, and a 
broad stairway of two hundred steps leads down to the shore. The .great interests of 
Odessa are commercial. By river and railroad the products are brought from the interior 
of the country to be shipped. The harbor is so deep that even the largest men-of-war 
can come close to the shore, which, except for a few months in the winter, when the water 
is frozen over, is always a scene of loading and unloading vessels. Out and in through 
the Bosphorus they pass between this port of Russia and the cities of the Mediterra¬ 
nean and Atlantic. 


Russia. 


29 


Among the other notable cities of Russia are Warsaw, a large manufacturing town 
and the most important of Poland ; Vladimir, another large manufacturing town of Tula, 
which is as noted for its cutlery in Russia as Sheffield is in England. In Siberia the 
largest town is Irkutsk, which has a population of twenty-seven thousand. It is the 
great center of Siberian trade, especially in tea, and stands upon the principal route 
between Eastern and Western Siberia and between China and Russia. 



THE ALEXANDER COLUMN. 














ENGLAND. 


T HE largest and most important city of England, indeed of the world, is London. 

It covers one hundred and thirty-two square miles, nearly three times the size of 
New York city, and contains four times as many people, or four million inhabitants. 
This great city lies on the rolling ground of the Thames valley, sixty miles from the 
winding river’s mouth, on both sides of the stream. Its greatest length is thirteen miles 
extending east and west in the direction of the river, whose banks are walled by massive 
granite dykes. As London has been growing since the third century it has come to 
include many places that were once outlying villages, each with its own peculiar name. 
The larger and more important part of the city lies north of the river, and is made up 
of two divisions,—the business, money-making “City” and “East End,” and the “West 
End,” with its homes, parks, and places of amusement ; while between the two, in the 
heart of the town, is the famous old law quarter called the “ Temple.” 

For many miles before the Thames reaches the center of London it is lined with 
wharves, warehouses, and immense inclosed docks. The broad stream is crowded with 
all kinds of vessels—of not more than eight hundred tons burden—bearing cargoes 
from every nation in the world. This is the Port of London, from which the commerce 
of England extends all over the globe. Out and in the ships are constantly sailing, and 
the work of loading and unloading seems never to cease. From London alone comes 
one-half of England’s customs-revenues, while one-quarter of the whole ship-tonnage of 
the kingdom and one-quarter of its exports are centred in this busy scene. The Pool, 
the great rendezvous for coal boats, is further up the river and just below London 
Bridge, the oldest, the most used, and the most famous of the dozen bridges that span 
the Thames as it runs through London Town. It is built of granite and has cost about ten 
million dollars. Its long rows of lamp-posts are made out of the French cannon captured 
in the Peninsular War. But Waterloo Bridge is the handsomest. It is nearly fourteen 
hundred feet long and so high that it commands a fine view of some of the greatest sights 
of London. At night this is lighted by electricity. Between here and old London 
Bridge is Blackfriars’ Bridge, which crosses the river in the heart of the city, and stands- 



LONDON BRIDGE. 

























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































3 2 


Cities of the World. 


at the eastern end of the broadest and finest of the river walls, the Victoria Embank¬ 
ment, which is a favorite walk, stretching on the north side of the river to Westminster 
Bridge. The Albert Embankment, the finest on the south side of the river, begins at 



WATERLOO BRIDGE, LONDON. 

Vauxhall bridge, near the western end of the city, and extends past Lambeth Palace to 
Westminster Bridge, opposite Westminster Palace, and the Parliament Houses. 

Lambeth Palace has been for six hundred years the London residence of the Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury, the primate of England. It is a massive old pile of brick and 
stone which has been the scene of many important events in the civil and church history 
of England. It is entered at the southern end by the old, tower-guarded Morton 
gate-way, of red brick and stone dressings, which was built in 1484. It is said 
that probably no other piece of architecture in Europe has brought so much of beauty 
and grandeur as safely through four centuries of so many trials. This leads to the 
outer courtyard—within the Palace walls—along the right side of which is the Library 
and Juxon’s Hall. 

The body of the Palace is beyond, where, at the north-western corner, are the 
Guard Room, Portrait Gallery, Chapel—the oldest building of Lambeth—and several 
other rooms and towers, the outermost of which are the Post Room and the Lollards’ 
Tower, a massive, square keep of stone. The rest of the Palace, which extends toward 
the eastward, faces the northern end of the inner courtyard, and is the princely dwell¬ 
ing of the Archbishop. Above is the Medical School, and, extending nearly eighteen 
hundred feet along the Albert Embankment to Westminster Bridge, are the seven great 
red brick buildings of St. Thomas’s Hospital, which are each four stories high and 
united by arcades into one immense institution, where over sixty-six thousand patients 












London . 


33 


are treated every year. On the other side of the river, directly opposite, are the Houses 
of Parliament. 

This magnificent building, close to the water, covers about eight acres of ground at 
the head of the Victoria Embankment. This is where the Lords and “ Commons ” 
meet, who help the Queen to rule the country, somewhat as our Senate and Congress 
come together at Washington. It is built of stone in the richest late-gothic style, which 
is also called “ Tudor” or “Perpendicular” architecture; and beside the Parliament 
Chambers, include official dwellings and other apartments, numbering eleven hundred in 
all, with eleven open courts and 
one hundred staircases. The river 
front, which is nine hundred and 
forty feet long, is adorned with 
rich decorations and statues of all 
the sovereigns of England. The 
Palace has three towers, the lowest 
of which is the Middle Tower, 
three hundred feet high. The 
square Clock Tower—or St. Ste¬ 
phen’s Tower—which stands at the 
north-western corner, contains 
“Big Ben,” the famous old bell, 
which, in calm weather, is heard 
over the larger part of London. It 
takes half a day to wind the 
striking part of the great clock in 
this tower, whose dials are on each 
of the four sides and measure 
twenty-three feet in diameter. At 
the southwestern corner is Vic¬ 
toria Tower, the highest and 
largest of the three, containing 
the royal entrance through which 
the Queen passes when she visits Parliament. Within Westminster Palace, as without, 
all is handsome and imposing, while some of the apartments are really magnificent. 
Between the Victoria Tower and the House of Peers lies the long Royal Victoria Gallery, 
with floors richly paved in mosaics, ceilings paneled and gilded, and the long side walls 
covered with two great historic paintings in fresco. The House of Peers is an immense 
room lying beyond, which occupies about the center of the southern half of the Palace. 
It is probably the most gorgeous apartment in Westminster. The walls and ceilings are 



HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, LONDON. 









34 


Cities of the World. 


handsomely decorated, and in the twelve beautiful stained glass windows are the por¬ 
traits of the kings and queens of England since the Norman Conquest. At night the 
House is lighted from without through these windows, between which are niches filled 
with statues of the Barons who secured the Magna Charta of King John. The floor is 
occupied by more than four hundred red benches, seats of the “members.” The cele¬ 
brated woolsack of the Lord Chancellor—a kind of cushioned ottoman—standing almost 
in the center, is in front of the magnificent canopied throne of the Queen, at the south 
end of the hall. \On either side of this are the thrones of the Prince of Wales and the 
late Prince Albert, while above are seats for foreign ambassadors and other distinguished 
visitors. Opposite the throne, at the north end of the chamber, is the Bar, where com¬ 
munications to the Lords are delivered and law-suits pleaded ; and above it are galleries 
for reporters and strangers. The situation of the House of Commons in about the 
center of the northern half of Westminster Palace, corresponds to that of the Peers in 
the southern part. The two halls are the same in width, but the Commons is neither so 
long nor so high as the Lords’ ; and, although very handsome with its oak paneling and 
stained glass windows, it is but plain and substantial looking as compared with the gor¬ 
geous decorations of the other House. Midway between the Houses is the spacious 
eight-sided Central Hall, which stands beneath the Central Tower in the middle of the 
building. Skirting its floors of inlaid pavements is the inscription in Latin : “ Except 
the Lord keep the house, their labor is but lost that build it.” The stone vaulting, sup¬ 
ported by massive and richly embossed ribs, is deeprated with Venetian mosaics, 
many statues of English sovereigns rest in niches by the windows, and the lofty door¬ 
ways which lead in four directions to corridors connecting with lobbies, halls and courts 
belonging to and surrounding the Houses. The Parliament building stands upon the 
site of the old Westminster Palace, which from the time of the Anglo-Saxon kings to the 
reign of Henry VIII. was a royal residence. In 1840 all was destroyed except West¬ 
minster Hall, which is on the western side of the present Palace. This is now used as 
a public vestibule to the Houses, and is entered from the northern outer-court, called 
New Palace Yard,—new in the time of William Rufus, who laid it out when in 1097 he 
built this great hall for banquets, as the first step—which was also his last—toward a 
new royal residence. We see it as remodeled and enlarged just three hundred years 
later by Richard II., who built upon the old walls a magnificent new roof, which 
hangs in mid-air now with its peak ninety-two feet above the pavement, as’solidly 
as it did five hundred years ago ; its massive timbers of oak and chestnut interlocking 
each other in a great gothic arch, which is still a wonder to architects as a masterpiece 
of beauty and skill. From St. Stephen’s porch, at the southern end of the Great Hall 
of William Rufus, Old Palace Yard, extending to Victoria Tower, lies between the 
western fapade of the Palace and the extreme end of Westminster Abbey. 

This grand old minster, one of the greatest of London’s fifteen hundred churches 


London, 


35 


is built in the form of a cross, mostly in Gothic style. It is over five hundred feet long, 
and, besides the great nave, choir and transept, contains nine chapels dedicated to differ¬ 
ent saints, and many cloisters. At the western end are two square towers, two hundred 
and twenty-five feet high, with a Gothic window between and a Gothic door below. 



WESTMINSTER ABBEY, LONDON. 

Standing at this end of the nave a superb view of the ancient building may be had. 
From the stained glass windows far above, a beautiful light falls on the lofty arches, the 
magnificent colonnade of pillarsending in the chapel of Edward the Confessor, hundreds 
of feet away. A wonder of architectural beauty is on every side, with choir, transepts, 
cloisters and chapels filled with sculptures and bas-reliefs, keeping alive the illustrious 
names of England’s dead. 





















36 


Cities of the World. 


An iron screen separates the nave from the choir, with its great organ and hand¬ 
some wood-work ; and beyond the transepts is the chapel of Edward the Confessor, in 
which stand the ancient coronation chairs and the shrine of the Confessor, built in 1269. 
In front of the altar of the church is a curious old mosaic pavement ; the reredos is very 
elaborately wrought in red and white alabaster ; a picture of the Last Supper, in fine 
Venetian mosaics, occupies the recess above the table, while the niches are filled with 
large figures of Moses, St. Peter, St. Paul and David. The Poets’ corner is in the south 
transept. Here tombs, statues and monuments keep green the memory of the greatest 
names in English literature. Beyond the shrine of Edward the Confessor is the Chapel 
of Henry VII., the most beautiful and extensive in the Abbey. It consists of nave and 
aisles, with five small chapels at the eastern end. The Gothic ceiling, resting on lofty 
arches, is exquisitely wrought in fan-tracery, whose rich and delicate fret-work seems, in 
the distance, more like silver filagree than stone carving. On every side is a mass of rich 
ornamentation, especially of roses, since it was the marriage of Henry VII. (of Lancaster) 
with Elizabeth (of York) which brought to a close the War of the Roses, and founded 
the House of Tudor. The carved choir stalls on either side are appropriated to the 
Knights of the Order of the Bath. In this chapel alone are a thousand memorial statues 
and figures, in the midst of which are those of the founder and his queen, lying upon 
richly-carved tombs, surrounded by an elaborate and curiously-wrought screen of brass. 
Beside the solemn beauty and grandeur of this edifice, the old Abbey is a wonder in age, 
having been begun in the seventh century, and was the scene of many great events. All 
the English sovereigns from the time of Edward the Confessor have been crowned here ; 
and here, too, many of them lie buried. 

Not far from the Abbey is St. James’s Park and the Queen’s palace of Buckingham, 
which stands with its beautiful grounds at the head of the Mall. 

The building forms a large quadrangle, or hollow square, the principal front facing St. 
James’s Park. A portico of marble columns leads from a spacious court to the rooms of 
state, the finest of which is the Throne Room. The walls are gorgeously hung in red striped 
satin and gilt, above which is a marble frieze around the vaulted and richly decorated 
ceiling. The marble staircase is magnificent ; its ceiling is decorated in frescoes of 
Morning, Noon, Evening and Night. The Picture Gallery, Dining Room and Sculpture 
Gallery contain choice pictures by famous artists, and busts and statues of members of 
the royal family and eminent statesmen. Queen Victoria’s London residence is in the 
northern end of the palace, looking toward Green Park, while the Palace Garden is at 
the west. St. James’s Park is a long, fan-shaped green, covering thirty-six acres from 
Buckingham to Whitehall, between the Mall, a broad, tree-lined avenue running north¬ 
east, and Birdcage Walk, which, on the south side, leads to Westminster Bridge. It is 
handsomely laid out with trees, gardens and walks, while across the long, narrow lake, 
extending almost the full length of the park, is a suspension bridge making a beautiful 



ROYAL EXCHANGE, 











































































































































































































































































38 Cities of the World, 

short cut from the most fashionable quarter of London to Westminster Abbey and the 
Parliament Houses. 

Next to St. James’s Palace is Marlborough House, the London home of the Prince 
of Wales. This is on Pall Mall, a short distance from St. James’s Square, where stand 
the mansions of the Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Derby, Bishop of London and other 
members of the aristocracy of England. This is West End, the fashionable part of 
London, the center of which is Belgravia, beyond Buckingham Palace Garden. 

St. James’s Palace, on the north 
side of the Mall, faces the center of the 
park and extends back to the Pall Mall, 
a street filled with the small palaces of 
the famous London clubs. St. James’s 
was built by Henry VIII., and has been 
a royal residence ever since. Excepting 
the old brick gateway on the north-west, 
the Chapel Royal and the ancient Pres¬ 
ence Chamber, the present buildings are 
of the nineteenth century. It is now 
used for Court purposes, especially for 
the Queen’s levies, the royal receptions 
at which gentlemen are presented to 
Her Majesty. The Drawing Rooms, or 
ladies’ receptions, are held at Bucking¬ 
ham. In the Chapel Royal, which is 
regularly used for church services, 

Queen Victoria and some of her daugh¬ 
ters were married. 

Whitehall is a broad, crescent¬ 
shaped street lying between the large 
end of St. James’s Park and the Thames. 

It is lined on both sides with public 
buildings ; in the center, facing the open 
Parade, overlooking the Park, is the 
celebrated Horse Guards; opposite, 
extending to the Victoria Embank- 
ment, are many far-famed institutions, particularly old Scotland Yard the great 
police headquarters of London. At the head of Whitehall is Charing Cross 
where nearly all the omnibus lines of the West End meet, for these great coaches’ 
winch are found in all parts of London, are one of the very important accom- 
































✓ 



THE NEW LAW COURTS, LONDON. 







































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































40 


Cities of the World. 


modations for the people. Beyond is Trafalgar Square, where a great figure of Nelson 
looks down on fountains and statues in the midst of a busy throng of people passing to 
and fro. Fine hotels and public buildings surround the Square, while from it streets 
large and small run in every direction, filled with people on foot, and in carriages, omni¬ 
buses, or the two-wheeled hansom cabs, of which there are something like fourteen 
thousand used in London. On the west is the favorite drive to the parks through 
the Mall, and Pall Mall, with its aristocratic mansions ; on the south is Whitehall ; on 
the east the great West End avenue of trade, the Strand, stretches away to the city, lined 
with handsome shops, offices and places of amusement, and filled with a constant crowd 
of people ; and above the terrace on the north side is seen the long Grecian front of the 
National Gallery, with its Corinthian portico in the center. The exhibition of this 
gallery consists of ten hundred and fifty pictures, which are classified in many rooms, 
according to the various schools of art. Near by is an elegant Moorish building, the 
Alhambra Theater ; and Leicester Square, once a famous French quarter of London. 
Westward, beyond Haymarket (street) is the head of Piccadilly : at this end a scene of 
business among the handsome shops ; further along stand the Royal Academy buildings, 
while at the western end, which forms the upper boundary of Green Park, are fashion¬ 
able clubs and homes of wealthy families, extending to Hyde Park Corner, where Green 
Park ends, almost at a point, and Hyde Park, the finest in London, begins. Free to all, 
it is enjoyed by rich and poor. Within its lofty iron railing are nearly four hundred 
acres—including the great artificial lake, called Serpentine River—embellished with 
trees and gardens, monuments and statuary, and laid out in delightful walks and drives. 
One of the sights of London are the lines of handsome carriages and magnificent horses 
which throng the Drive of Hyde Park every clear afternoon during the “ season,” when 
the nobility and wealth, beauty and elegance of English society is out for the air. 

The famous horseback road, called Rotten Row, is through the south side of Hyde 
Park, leading to the Kensington Gardens, a beautifully laid-out public park in front of 
Kensington Palace, the birth-place of Queen Victoria. At the south side of Kensington 
Gardens is the Albert Memorial, a magnificent monument built by the English people in 
memory of their Prince and their Queen’s husband. It is very large, ornamented with 
many statues, and almost two hundred sculptured portraits of great artists, authors 
and musical composers. In the center is a statue of Prince Albert under a splendid 
carved canopy. The South Kensington Museum is south of the Gardens, in the part 
of London lying near the river, called Chelsea. Adjoining is the Royal Albert Hall, 
used for exhibitions and musical festivals ; the Horticultural Gardens and also many 
other museums and libraries. A park of ten acres of land is here devoted to exhibi¬ 
tion buildings and art and industrial schools, which are both among the best in the 
kingdom, and are constantly growing larger and finer. The South Kensington 
is a vast set of fire-proof buildings, with halls, galleries and connecting Museum 


corridors. It is said to 
be more perfectly suited 
to its purpose than any 
other building in En¬ 
gland. The collections 
include specimens and 
gems of all branches of 
art, arranged for study 
and education, as well 
as to be interesting and 
give pleasure to ordina¬ 
ry visitors. Here may 
be seen paintings, sculp¬ 
tures and tapestries, em¬ 
broideries, metal work 
and pottery, beside 
many other collections 
of the art-work of every 
age and nation. The 
grounds of the inclosed 
courts are adorned with 
statues and fountains, 
and laid out with pleas¬ 
ant walks, where people 
love to come and enjoy 
the bright flowers, music 
and gay companies al¬ 
ways gathered here in 
pleasant weather. 

Near the outskirts of 
the city, and some dis¬ 
tance north of Hyde 
Park, is Regent’s Park, 
which has a botanical 
garden, the finest mena¬ 
gerie and zoological 
garden in the world ; and 
many delightful walks 
and places of interest. 


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MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, SOUTH 


































































































42 


London. 


Besides the many large parks which almost encircle the outskirts of London, the city 
is full of small parks and squares which make “ breathing places ” in all its busy quarters. 

About midway between Regent’s Park and Waterloo Bridge is the British Museum, 
an immense building with Ionic columns along the wings and portico of its broad front. 
In the entrance hall are beautiful pictures and statues, and carefully arranged through¬ 
out many rooms are thousands of paintings and sculptures, beside great collections in 
natural history and almost every other branch of study. In the center of the block, sur¬ 
rounded by the Museum, is the New Reading Room, a great circular hall covered by a 
large dome of glass and iron. It will accommodate at one time nearly four hundred readers 
or writers, who sit in numbered seats at tables which radiate from the center of the room 
like spokes of a wheel. The library of the British Museum is one of the largest and 
finest in the world. Some distance to the eastward, occupying about the center of Lon¬ 
don, is the old and famous Law Quarter, from above High Holborn (street) to the 
Thames. Here are the celebrated law colleges of Gray’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn, Furnival’s 
and many others, where some of England’s greatest statesmen have spent their study days ; 
here are the new Courts of Justice, Fetter Lane, Chancery Lane, and other 
streets far-famed among barristers and solicitors. Beyond the Strand and Fleet 
street are the great law schools and other buildings of the temple, on the Vic¬ 
toria Embankment. ^OEastward from here is the City. Up busy Fleet street and Ludgate 
Hill, stands the Cathedral of St. Paul’s, which was built in 1643. A church has always 
stood on this ground since the time of Ethelbert (A. D. 610), although several times 
burned down. St. Paul’s was designed by the great English architect, Sir Christopher 
Wren, who also planned many of the most noted buildings in England, including the 
London Custom House, Temple Bar, Buckingham, Marlborough and one of the Towers 
of Westminster Abbey. St. Paul’s is in the form of a Latin cross, five hundred feet 
long, with arms half as wide, and stands in the highest part of London. It is a great, 
massive building, crowned by one of the largest and most beautiful domes in the world. 
In the Whispering Gallery a slight sound made near the wall on one side may be heard 
distinctly by an ear near the wall over a hundred feet away. Outside the dome are the 
Stone Gallery, and the Golden Gallery above, from which the streets of London look 
like a Lilliputian world. The monuments of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Samuel Johnson, 
Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, and many other great men, mostly admirals and 
generals, have been placed in St. Paul’s. 

If you go along famous old Cheapside, one of the great shop-lined streets of 
the City, leading from St. Paul’s, nearly opposite the Mansion House (which is the resi¬ 
dence of the Lord Mayor of London) you can see the great Bank of England. 
Excepting the handsome north-west corner, it is a plain-looking building which covers 
about four acres, and lighted from inner courts. This Bank is the most important 
in the world. Besides its own immense business it manages the debt of the Government 



I 






































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































44 


Cities of the World, 



tor which the Bank re¬ 
ceives a great deal of 
money. On every side 
it is surrounded by build¬ 
ings, filled with the of¬ 
fices of brokers, stock¬ 
jobbers and men of all 
money-handling b u s i - 
nesses. Close by is the 
Royal Exchange, 
hemmed in by shops on 
the outside, but built 
with a handsome inner 
court, surrounded by col¬ 
onnades ; a statue of 
Queen Victoria stands in 
the center, while others 
of Queen Elizabeth and 
Charles I. occupy cor¬ 
ners. The other Ex¬ 
changes are further to 
the eastward, and to¬ 
ward the Thames. 
Oh the bank of the 
Pool, beyond London 
Bridge, stands the fam¬ 
ous Tower of London. 

This old fortress, 
or castle, was begun by 
William the Conqueror ; 
and Henry III. who 
often lived here, built 

the larger part of what 
WESTERN TOWER, ST. PAUL’S, LONDON. n0 W stands . j t CQvers 

thirteen acres of ground, surrounded by a moat, inside of which is a double line of walls 
and towers. These inclose a ring of buildings made up of chambers and towers for 
barracks and military stores, the great, square White Tower being in the center. For 
many years the Tower of London has been used to imprison people accused of crimes 
against the sovereign or the government. Now-a-days besides keeping the scepter, crown, 
























ft 



THE INTERIOR OF ST. PAUL’S, LONDON. 






















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































46 Cities of the World. 

and other Royal ornaments, it is principally used as an arsenal and barracks, and for 
a very fine collection of ancient arms and armor. Every gate, room and corridor is full 
of historic interest ; each of the Twelve Towers of the Inner Ward has its story, and 
many have the chapel of St. Peter, and the Traitor’s Gate, leading to the Tower Hill, 
beyond the moat: “ The history of the Tower of London is the history of England. ,r 

Liverpool, lying on the hill-side and bristling with countless smoke-emitting chim¬ 
neys, beyond a wilderness of black rigging, has been many a visitor’s first view of an 



PRINCE’S LANDING, LIVERPOOL. 

English city. Sailing up the Mersey for miles before one reaches the town, he sees if 
there happens to be no fog, pleasant suburbs on both banks of the river. On the right, 
New Brighton gradually becomes Birkenhead; and on the east side after leaving 
Waterloo, the ship sails on to the great port of Liverpool, past miles of granite wall, 
behind which are eighteen miles of quay-margin, crowded with shipping. These docks 
are five miles long, and one of the “ lions ” of Britain. The tide is strong enough here 
to injure vessels, lying in the river ; so forty great docks were built, all joined together, 
and surrounded by strong stone walls, in which are immense flood-gates, only opened to 
let vessels pass at high tide, thus keeping the docks always filled with the same height. 

















THE TOWER OF LONDON 































































































































48 


Cities of the World. 


of water. The river is filled with craft, especially ocean steamers. The steam-tugs and 
“ side-wheelers ” plying between the docks and wharves on the two sides of the river, (for 
Birkenhead is like a part of Liverpool), are very different from the ferry boats about 
New York. When they reach the shore, they do not fit into a slip, but draw up along 
side a large floating platform, which is attached to the top of the pier by gang-plank 
bridges. 



STRAND STREET, LIVERPOOL. 

Liverpool is the home of nearly six hundred thousand people, more than live in Chicago, 
Illinois. It was in existence before the Normans conquered England, but did not become 
of any importance until during the last century. It is now the second city of England, 
and one of the greatest commercial centers in the world. Sloping toward the river, it is 
handsomely built up, for the most part in soft yellow and gray sandstone, trimmed 
with blue or red granite. Many of the streets are short, steep and irregular, while others, 
fine and broad, run in every direction. Near the river it seems all made up of grim, dull 
warehouses, some of which are ten stories high. A few blocks away is the business 
center of the town, which is also the handsomest part, for “ in Liverpool Trade is enthroned, 
with Cotton as prime minister.” Between ten o’clock and three there is no busier scene 





























Liverpool. 


49 


in town than around the statue of Nelson in the center of the Flags, the paved square 
inclosed on three sides of the Exchange and Town Hall. These buildings cover two 
acres of land, and are finely built of pale, soft stone, in what is called the French Renais¬ 
sance style. Of the interior the great News Room, with its splendid decorations and 
stained glass dome in the center, is the most beautiful. Dale street, with its magnificent 
new public offices, leads eastward from the Exchange to the most notable building in the 
city, St. George’s Hall. This stands on Lime street, which is like a great open square, 
occupying about the center of the town. The appearance of St. George’s Hall is 
massive, complete and beautiful. The southern portico stands above a flight of 
broad steps, with its colonnade of fluted columns and richly-sculptured pediment. Its 
sides are five hundred feet long; and in front of the eastern portico, also colonnaded, 



THE BROWN FREE LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, LIVERPOOL. 

are horseback statues of the Queen and Prince Albert, from which an immense stone 
staircase leads to the ground. The interior is occupied by many court rooms and 
assembly halls, the largest being the grand hall, used for banquets and other festivities. 
This contains a fine organ and pieces of statuary ; it is magnificent in itself, especially 
the arched ceiling, which is richly decorated and supported by two rows of polished 
granite columns. Around St. George’s Hall are gathered other handsome buildings: the 
Free Library, with thousands of books; the Museum, containing an aquarium and very 
interesting and valuable collections in curiosities and specimens of natural history, and 
the free school of science connected with them. The New Reading Room is built in 
the form of a rotunda and surrounded by a circular row of high columns, and is next to 
the Art Gallery, which has a fine exhibition of paintings by great artists. Other places 
of importance and interest stand on the streets surrounding and leading from Lime street. 
Handsome stores and bright crowds are seen in Castle street, Lord street and Bold street, 
near by, while beyond are nothing but houses. Here are many fine open squares 
surrounded by beautiful homes, and scarcely a trace of likeness to the lower part of the 






50 


Cities of the World. 

city is seen. There are four parks on the outskirts, which contain gentlemen’s man¬ 
sions surrounded by beautiful grounds. The parks are inclosed by iron fences, but 
people are free to walk or drive in through the gates. Sefton Park and the Zoological 
Gardens are the most interesting to visit. 

Four days in the week are market days in Liverpool when the people from the 
country come in great numbers with produce from their farms, with cattle and horses. 
Almost every kind of trade and manufactory is carried on in the busy city. The ship¬ 
building yards are large and there are foundries and factories for nearly every thing 



PERCH ROCK LIGHT, LIVERPOOL. 

wanted on ship-board, beside extensive works in many other articles. Railroads running 
through the city are in tunnels under the houses, or upon great arches above the roofs. 

Manchester is the largest manufacturing town in the kingdom. Salford on the 
west side of the river Irwell, is connected with it by many bridges, and is considered a 
part of the city. There are about four hundred thousand people in Manchester, which 
makes it next in size to Liverpool. It lies about thirty miles to the northeast of the 
great sea-port town, and is connected with it by railroads and the famous Bridgewater 
Canal. Many of the streets of this very old city have been made large and handsome ; 
and in public improvements Manchester has led all the towns of England. It has fine 
water works and city institutions, excellent public libraries, museums ; and among the 
notable buildings are some warehouses as handsome as palaces. Most of the great 
buildings are in what is called the Gothic style of architecture. The Assize Court is 
said to be one of the best built structures in the world. It is very large, stands so as to 
look well, and is composed of various colored and polished granites. The wealth of 
decoration upon this Court has not only beauty but “ a root in history.” There is a 
grand hall inside, one hundred feet high, fifty feet wide and seventy-five feet in length. 
The roof is open timber, with many beautiful designs in its arrangement, and delicate 













FREE TRADE HALL. MANCHESTER 







































































































































































































































































































































































































































































52 


Cities of the World. 


carved tracery. A stained glass window at the end of the hall pictures the history of the 
Magna Charta. There are a great many churches in Manchester ; the finest and largest is 
the cathedral, called the “ Old Church and among the most noted monuments standing 
in some of the city squares are the Prince Albert Memorial, in Albert Square, a bronze 
statue of Richard Cobden, the English “Apostle of Free Trade,” in St. Ann’s Square ; 
and Oliver Cromwell’s statue, at the foot of Victoria street. There are also schools* 
colleges, and universities in the city ; but other towns of England are famous for educa- 



THE ASSIZE COURTS, MANCHESTER. 

tion, while Manchester is known above all others in every kind of cotton industry, while 
it also has Jarsre mills for making silk, worsted, cloth, glass, paper, and other things. 

Birmingham, which stands nearer to the center of England than any other large 
city, has about as many people in it as Manchester, or as Boston, Massachusetts. It 
stands on rolling ground, on the east side of three hills, by the Rea and Tame rivers • 
so it is bountifully supplied with water, and well drained, too, by nature. It is divided 
into two parts, the old town, which is crowded with work-shops and factories, and the 
new, which is more open, and has some fine buildings. There is scarcely a city of 
England with a more interesting history than Birmingham. It has been an important 
manufacturing town for centuries. When Charles II. came back from France to take 
his throne again, he brought a fashionable rage for metal ornaments, which Birmingham 




















INTERIOR ROYAL EXCHANGE, MANCHESTER 













































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































54 


Cities of the World. 


briskly began to supply, and won for itself the name of the “toy shop of Europe.” 
People then called it “ Brummagem ” instead of Birmingham, and before long any 
worthless things with a glittering outside, especially false jewelry and ornaments, 
were called “ Brummagem ware.” 

There are great iron and coal mines near by ; but no use was made of these until 
after James Watt found out how to make steam engines, and, with Matthew Boulton, set 



THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, MANCHESTER. 


up his great Soho Works near the town. Since then Birmingham has been famous for 
making steam engines, hydraulic presses, and almost every kind of hardware and 
machinery, including swords, which, in 1643, it not only supplied, but also used to good 
purpose on the side of Parliament against Prince Rupert and his lancers ; and during 
the Crimean war every week this city sent three thousand muskets to the Cxovernment. 
There are many famous events and names in English history connected with the town, 
of which the visitor is reminded by the statues and monuments he sees as he goes about. 























































Birm ingha m. 


55 


Some of the public buildings are very handsome ; and the great Town Hall, which has a 
magnificent organ, is large enough to hold sixty thousand people, who come to the grand 
musical festival held here once every three years. 

Birmingham supplies all England, some of Europe, and even America, with large 
quantities of first-class fire-arms, ammunition, swords, metal ornaments, toys, jewelry, 
buttons, buckles, lamps, pins, steel-pens, tools, locks, bedsteads, saddlery, steam engines, 
and all sorts of machinery. The mint strikes more than eighty thousand copper coins 



KING EDWARD SCHOOL, BIRMINGHAM. 

every day. There a*re about one hundred and fifty churches, a cathedral, charitable 
institutions, schools, colleges, institutes, free libraries, a botanic garden, an art gallery, 
and four public parks in the famous old town. 

The great linen and woolen industries of England are centred at Leeds. It stands 
about forty miles from Manchester, keeping on in the same northeasterly direction from 
Liverpool. The city holds nearly three hundred and fifty thousand people, about twice 
as many as Buffalo, New York. Some of the largest tanneries in the kingdom are here. 
So besides its famous linen and woolen trade, Leeds manufactures boots and shoes ; and 
also worsteds, silk, iron, glass, paper, tobacco, oil, earthenware, and other things. There 
are many fine buildings and churches in and about the city, of which St. Peter’s is the 
greatest. It is very large, and the tower, a hundred and forty feet high, contains a peal 

















5 6 Cities of the World. 

of thirteen bells. The inside is very interesting with its fine statues, the monument in 
memory of the men of Leeds who fell in the Crimean War, and many beautiful stained 
glass windows. Less grand, but more interesting still, is old St. John’s, which has not 
been changed since it was built two hundred and fifty years ago. About three miles 


TOWN HALL, BIRMINGHAM. 

from the town are the fine old ruins of Kirkstall Abbey, which was built in the twelfth 
century. Roundelay Park is a handsome public pleasure ground about two miles from 
the city. The notable buildings of Leeds are the Exchanges, especially the Com 
Exchange, which is a handsome oval building, Institutes, Hospitals, the Philosophic 
Hall and Museum, the Bank, and Post Office, beside the great Town Hall, which is one 
of the finest in England, with a tower as high as those of Westminster Abbey. It is 
two hundred and fifty feet long and two hundred broad, covering five thousand six 
hundred square yards, for it must be large enough to hold all the people who 
come from far and near to the great festival. A noble statue of the Duke of Wel¬ 
lington stands in front of the Hall, and an immense one of the Queen is in the vesti¬ 
bule. Other statues and decorations make the inside very beautiful, where also there 
is one of the largest and most powerful organs in Europe. 

Among the important manufacturing towns of England is busy, smoky Sheffield, 



















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53 


Cities of the World. 


famous for cutlery. It lies south of Leeds and west of Liverpool, in the central part of 
the country. It has about three hundred thousand people, who are mostly connected 
with the many busy mills for manufacturing all kinds of iron and steel implements. 
Sheffield not only makes a great deal of cutlery, but some of the best in the world. It 
supplied all the United States until we began to make our own. 

Bristol, which is in the southwestern part of the Kingdom, about eight miles 
from the mouth of the British Channel, is a little smaller than New Orleans, with 

two hundred and twenty-five thousand 
people living in it. It is a noted center 
for foreign trade, chiefly with America, 
Russia, France, Portugal and the 
Mediterranean. Bristol has many fine 
buildings, and some very old ones, one 
of which is the Temple with a lean¬ 
ing tower. 

The finest worsteds in England are 
made at Bradford, not far west of 
Leeds. This town is the great whole¬ 
sale market in the 
worsted and alpaca 
trade. It is about 
one-quarter larger 
than Newark, New 
Jersey, with nearly 
two hundred thou¬ 
sand people. The 
famous Saltaire al¬ 
paca and mohair 
mills are here, 
which cover more 
than six acres, on 
the Aire River, 
and are said to be 



TOWN HALL, BRADFORD. 


the most splendid set of factories in England. Bradford also has large cotton mills 
and foundries, besides manufactories for machinery, combs, and other things, and 
Lister’s silk mills, which are the largest in England. With all its busy cares it has 
become noted for liberality and enterprise throughout the Kingdom. 

Hull, on the Humber River near the North Sea, is the great eastern port of the 
north of England. It is a little smaller than Bradford, but has an immense shipping 













Hull and Newcastle. 


59 


business, and unusually fine docks. There are a number of factories in the town 
chiefly to supply the shipping wants. The Holy Trinity is a beautiful Gothic 
church, whose transept is the oldest brick building in England. There is a training 
school for sailors in Trinity House School, and among the few artistic beauties 
of the city are an equestrian statue of William III., and a statue of Wilberforce. 

The largest town in the north of England is Newcastle, so named long ago when 
a castle was begun there by Robert, the son of William the Conqueror, and finished by 
William Rufus. The town has about one hundred and fifty thousand people, and is 
not much smaller than Hull. It is especially known from its great trade in coal, which 

is very large, and began as 
long ago as the reign of 
Henry III. Newcastle also 
supplies English com¬ 
merce with a great many 
ships and iron vessels, be¬ 
side^ making glass, loco¬ 
motives, railway carriages, 
iron - ware, paper, glue, 
Armstrong cannon and 
other things. The old 
town was once held by the 
Romans ; and beside the 
fine ruins of Henry II.’s 
castle, the visitors find in 
it a great deal that is 
wonderful, beautiful, and 
of historic interest. 

Although every town of 
any size in England has 
good schools, and many 
school days at eton. 0 f th em , co lleges and uni¬ 

versities besides, the only business of several of the famous towns of the Kingdom 
is education. 

There are school towns and university towns. The most famous of the school 
towns are Eton and Rugby. Eton is on the Thames, opposite Windsor Castle, which is 
about twenty miles from London. This little town, known all over the world, has only 
one well paved street, and scarcely any business. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI., 
and has nearly a thousand students every year, to seventy of whom, called King’s 
Scholars, the Government gives board and teaching free. 



































6o 


Cities of the World. 


Almost as well known, is Rugby, which is upon the Avon, about eighty miles from 
London. This was started about a hundred and twenty-five years after Eton, by Law¬ 
rence Sheriff, a London shop-keeper. This has also about a thousand boys, who would 
tell you that one of the best things about Rugby is the ’leven-acre foot-ball and cricket 
ground. 



bridge, st. John’s college, Cambridge. 


Other famous preparatory schools of England are at Westminster, Harrow and 
London, which send graduates every year to the great universities, especially Oxford and 
Cambridge. 

In the midst of rich and wooded meadows on the north bank of the Upper Thames, 
the spires, towers, and domes of Oxford rise. This old town, about fifty miles north¬ 
west of London, was standing in the eighth century. It has now about forty thousand 
people (the size of Camden, New Jersey), and is full of historic interest even outside of 
















Oxford and Cambridge . 


61 


the University, which takes up most of the town in twenty Colleges and five Halls. 
The oldest College, “University” or “ Baliol,” was built in the latter part of 1200; 
fourteen of the buildings were raised before the Reformation, which was in the sixteenth 
century. It is said that High Street, which is about one thousand yards long, has the 
greatest number of noble buildings of any street of its size in Europe. Besides the 
University buildings, Oxford has fine halls, hospitals, museums, laboratories, and chapels ; 
a printing house, called the Clarendon Press, one of the finest libraries in Europe, and 
the Botanic Gardens near the Cherwell River. 

The city of Cambridge stands by the River Cam, about fifty miles north of London. 
It has about as many people as Denver, Colorado, or thirty-five thousand. The town char¬ 
ter was granted by King John in 1200 ; but long before that time, scholars, or “clercks,” 



SENATE HOUSE, CAMBRIDGE. 

(as the people who could read and write were called), used to gather here to study. 
They made up a society of students after a while. Then different societies were formed, 
for different branches of study, and in this way the college system of education began. 
The societies of Cambridge were given Royal support in the latter part of the thir¬ 
teenth century. One at a time, seventeen different colleges were founded, mostly by Kings 
or members of the Royal families. King’s College, the most imposing of all, was built by 
HenryVI., and Trinity College, by Henry VIII., who also set up a number of professorships 
in the University. Among other noted buildings in Cambridge are the Senate House, 
where the examinations are held, and all the public business of the University done ; 
splendid libraries, museum, picture galleries, botanic gardens, and a very fine observa¬ 
tory. There are usually about two thousand students at the University, besides many 
graduates who live here. 



























FRANCE 



B RILLIANT, beautiful Paris, the pride of the French, the delight of travelers, lies 
like some splendid gem on a fair and sunny plateau in the center of northern 
France. Around are low hills, on whose slopes are the gardens of the town flower 
dealers, while the blue waters of the Seine make a bold curve in the heart of the city, 
which they enter at the south-east and leave at the south-west. 


OLD PARIS. 

The French capital is a walled city, covering nearly thirty square miles. Its greatest 
length is east and west, although the moat and towers of its fortifications almost describe 
a circle in surrounding the town. Within these defenses is one of the great boulevards, 
for which Paris is so famous. It completely encircles the city, and is called the Military 
street, although every section of it has its own name. Another set of boulevards forms. 










PARIS, ALONG THE SEINE 


































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































6 4 


Cities of the World. 


an inner circle nearer the center of the city. These were built in the reign of Louis 
Philippe, where the old city ramparts once stood, when the walls of Paris inclosed about 
one-fourth of the present space. Of these the semi-circle lying north of the river is known 
as The Boulevards of Paris. Here stand the finest of the handsome buildings, the most 
magnificent stores, and here the brightest crowds of busy people are always to be seen. 

Besides these, other boule¬ 
vards extend in every direc¬ 
tion, as if the late Emperors 
had laid a network of broad, 
beautiful avenues over the 
finer meshes of the narrow 
and irregular streets of earlier 
days. In all the better parts 
of the city the thoroughfares 
are lined with trees, seats and 
little towers, called vespasi- 
ennes , while restaurants, cafes, 
shops and places of amuse¬ 
ment stretch on and on for 
many miles, broken only by 
fine open squares. 

Outside the walls on the 
western side of Paris is the 
great pleasure ground of the 
people, the Bois de Boulogne, 
which is said to be the most 
beautiful public garden in 
Europe. It contains nearly 
three thousand acres, being 
about three times the size of 
Central Park in New York. 
Beside the immense aquari¬ 
ums, bird pavilion, garden 
for cassowaries and ostriches 
to be seen, there are miles of lovely walks and drives through avenues of tall 
handsome trees, past lawns, flower-beds and beautiful lakes. Like the Drive in 
Hyde Park of London, every pleasant afternoon the avenues of the Bois de Bou¬ 
logne are filled with a pageant of beautiful and gorgeously dressed people taking 
their daily airing. The principal avenue is a hundred yards wide, and at the upper end 



mmmzmm 


ARC DE L ETOILE. 

































BOULEVARD MONTMARTRE 







































































































































































66 


Cities of the World. 


leads to the Gate of Maillot, one of the fortified entrances to the city. From here a 
grand street runs the full length of Paris, ending at the Gate of Vincennes, which lies 
above another charming park, the Bois de Vincennes, on the eastern outskirts. This 
one avenue, which in different places bears various names, contains a large part of the 
greatest buildings in France. At the entrance gate, it is the Avenue of the Grand Army, 
which stretches, broad and handsome, to an immense open square, where ten avenues 
or boulevards come together, forming the Place of the Star. In the center is Napoleon’s 
triumphal arch, called, from the place where it stands, Arc de l’Etoile. It is about a 
hundred and fifty feet high, and almost as broad, with great arched entrances on all 
sides. It is adorned by pictures in relief, representing the victories of the Emperor, and 
is said to be one of the finest pieces of architecture in the world. Three of the avenues 
from here run in a southerly direction, one to the Bois de Boulogne, and two to Place 
du (which means square of) Trocadero, where the Trocadero Palace stands. This is a 
huge crescent-shaped Oriental building, erected for the exhibition of 1867. It faces the 
river with a handsomely laid out par^ extending to the banks. The Palace contains a 
hall for concerts and several interesting collections in the museum galleries. From the 
great dome, which crowns the building, there is an extended view of Paris. The large 
sandy space opposite is a military parade ground, the Champ-de-Mars (Field of Mars), 
and the bridge leading to it is the Pont de Lena. The Champ-de-Mars is five hundred 
and fifty yards wide and twice as long. At the further end stands an imposing building 
with a Corinthian portico and square dome above, it is the military school of France, 
and contains a pretty chapel like that of the royal palace of Versailles. Within the outer 
buildings are colonnaded courts ; altogether they cover twenty-six acres of ground, and 
include infantry and cavalry barracks large enough to hold ten thousand men and eight 
hundred horses. Two avenues lead from the School or the Champs, across the White 
Bridge, which is some distance above the other, back to the Arc de l’Etoile. A short 
avenue northward, another branch of the great Star, leads to the little park of Monceaux, 
with its beautiful gardens of plants, and statues, historic tombs and grottoes, and the 
colonnade encircled lake, the Naumachie, one of the remains of its more luxurious days, 
when Monceaux was an imperial pleasure ground. It is now an interesting and refreshing 
piece of green, surrounded by fashionable houses, sumptuous hotels, and broad boule¬ 
vards. Beyond the Arc de l’Etoile, the Avenue of the Grand Army becomes the Avenue 
of the Elysian Fields, or Chatnps-Elysees. In the summer evenings this avenue is a blaze 
of light. From the halls and places of amusement overlooking the broad thoroughfare 
come the sounds of music, while hundreds and thousands of people are walking or sitting 
beneath the grand old trees. At small tables on the side-walk men and women sit, sip¬ 
ping coffee and gayly talking ; rich and poor, in a happy, contented and economical way, 
are resting and enjoying themselves after the work and care of the day. Back and forth, 
riding and walking, others are going to the Bois de Boulogne, or eastward to where the 


Paris. 


67 



HOTEL DES INVALIDES. 


NAPOLEON S TOMB. 

both sides of the Seine. They 
are made with broad paved 
promenades, lined with trees, 
beautified with statues and 
plants, and furnished with 
benches and sidewalks. Some 
of these quays were built in the 
fourteenth century ; for Paris 
is a very old city. You may 
have read of it in Caesar’s Com- 
meniaries , where it is called 
Lutetia, the home of the Gallic 
tribe, Parisii. A fine, stone 
bridge, the Pont des Invalides, 
at the south-western corner of 
the Champs-Elysees, stretches 
to the Quai d’Orsay, which is a 
broad, pleasant embankment, 
on the left bank of the river, 
extending from the Field of 


Champs-Elysees broadens into a magnificent tree-planted garden. The avenue con¬ 
tinues straight on the full length of the park, which, filled with fountains and beautiful 
buildings, extends to the Quay de 
Conference. This is one of the 
splendid set of stone river walls 
of Paris which for six miles line 

















































68 


Cities of the World. 


Mars, around the curve, and almost to the center of the city. The bridge is built in 
arches and ornamented with military statues and trophies, for it is the most direct way 
from the western part of Paris to the great Soldiers’ Home, and the Hotel des 
Invalides. A boulevard runs from the bridge along the west side of the Invalides, 
while in front of it, a great esplanade, the size of the Field of Mars, bordered with 
several rows of trees, stretches from the river to the dry moat of the outer court, 
where the “ Triumphal Battery ” bristles with a row of cannon taken by France from 
her enemies. 

The Hotel des Invalides is two hundred years old. It covers about thirty acres, and 
is really a group of magnificent buildings around grand open courts. The vast three¬ 
storied front is almost as long as the width of the Esplanade. The roof, fa 9 ade and 
gardens are all decorated with military statues and arms. The Hotel includes a 
fine military library and collections of many works of art, armor and artillery, beside 
the home for disabled soldiers, which Louis XIV. founded, to assure a happy existence 
to those who had lost property or blood in the cause of their country. The principal 
entrance leads to the Grand Court, which is surrounded by two tiers of imposing arcades. 
Opposite the grand portico- the Church of St. Louis is seen, with a statue of Napoleon 
in the center of the upper arcade. Beyond is the gilded roof and spire of the Dome, 
which contains the tomb of Napoleon. This chapel maybe reached through the Church, 
but is quite separate from it, with an entrance on the Place Vauban, the head of many 
broad streets, which, from various directions in the southern part of the city, come 
together at the Invalides. The Dome is said to be the most beautiful religious monument 
built in France since the Renaissance, which was the revival of the style of the ancients 
in building, and reached France in about the sixteenth century. The Dome is a square 
edifice, with a circular tower above containing twelve windows and a lofty gilded dome 
bearing reliefs representing military trophies. The cross above the lantern which sur¬ 
mounts the Dome is about three hundred and fifty feet high. The rich sculptures and 
symmetric columns of the outside are no greater in beauty than the interior, where 
statues, pictures, mosaics and bas reliefs adorn the various chapels ; and beneath the 
dome, in an open circular crypt, rests a great coffin of polished red Finland granite, 
containing the remains of Napoleon. They were placed here according to the wish of 
the Emperor. The words from his will are on the chapel door : “ I desire that my ashes 
may rest on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people that I love so 
well.” The walls, the pavements, and even the ceiling, repeat the story of the great 
Emperor’s deeds. Facing the entrance to the crypt, in a cave of black marble, lighted 
by a single lamp, is a white marble statue of Napoleon represented in his imperial 
dress, with all his decorations and medals of honor, the sword of Austerlitz and the 
golden crown presented to him by the city of Cherbourg. 

Among the caf6s, restaurants and other buildings in the southern part of the 


Paris , 


69 

Champs-Elysees, is the Palace of Industry, which was built in 1854 for the Universal 
Exhibition, and is now used for different exhibitions, particularly the great yearly show 
of paintings and sculptures, called the Paris Salon. The building faces the main avenue, 
and occupies nearly one-third its length. An immense arcade of Corinthian columns 
flanks the principal entrance ; above is a bas relief representing Industry and Arts 
bringing their products to the Exhibition. In the various wings and galleries of this great 
pavilion are many fine and interesting collections, while in the center is an immense glass- 
covered hall fifty feet high, and nearly six hundred and fifty feet long. Opposite 



PALACE OF INDUSTRY. 

the Palace of Industry, beyond the main avenue, the Champs-Elysees connect with the 
gardens of the Elysian Palace. This stands beyond the Avenue Gabriel, skirting the 
Champs-Elysees on the north, and fronting on the next street, the Rue St. Honore. The 
Palais Elysees has been celebrated in French history from the days of Louis XIV., and has 
seen many uses. Now-a-days it is the residence of the President of the Republic. It 
stands upon a terrace, and is built with a gallery and stone balustrade overlooking the street 
after the Italian fashion. The monumental gate in the center is a triumphal arch, supported 
by Corinthian columns, and beautifully embellished by war trophies, ensigns and 



















7 o 


Cities of the World. 


standards of the State. Within are the President’s apartments, a banquet or reception 
hall and rooms richly decorated, particularly with tapestries. The main avenue of the 
Champs-Elysees, with its theaters, its fountains, trees, cafes and restaurants, ends in the 
largest and most beautiful square in Paris, the Place de la Concorde. It occupies an 
immense square much larger than the Place de l’Etoile, between two beautiful parks, the 
Champs-Elysees and the Garden of the Tuileries, bounded, as they are, on the north by 
the Avenue Gabriel (the eastern part from here being called Rue de Rivoli), and on the 



PLACE DE LA CONCORDE. 


south by the Seine, which is here crossed by the Pont de la Concorde. This is more 
used than any other bridge in Paris, and leads to the Quai d’Orsay in front of the two 
great squares of handsome public buildings adjoining the Esplanades des Invalides. 
From the center of the Place de la Concorde is a magnificent view of the river, the verdant 
gardens and great buildings. The long rows of lights in the evening seem to stretch 
up the Champs-Elysees in a “never ending vista ” toward the Triumphal Arch. On 
all sides of the Place, but not inclosing it, are noble buildings with deep arcades of 







Paris. 


7 i 



columns and richly sculptured fronts. Eight stone figures standing here represent the 
chief towns of France. In a straight line from the bridge are two magnificent fountains 
on either side of the Obelisk of Luxor, a tall red monument of a single stone from the 

ruins of Thebes. Beyond is 
the Rue Royale, at the head 
of which stands La Made¬ 
leine in full view from the 
Place. This is the Church 
of St. Mary Magdalene, 
built in the style of a 
Greek temple. It is about 
a hundred and fifty feet 
broad and a hundred high, 
built of stone, without any 
windows, and is surrounded 
on all sides with a line of 
Corinthian columns. A 


INTERIOR OF THE 
MADELEINE. 


broad flight of steps 
in front leads to the 
portico with its won¬ 
derful bronze doors 
over thirty feet high 
wrought into designs 
taken from the Old 
Testament and relat¬ 
ing to the command¬ 
ments of God. The 
pediment above the 
front colonnade is 
covered with sculp- 
t u r e s representing 
Christ as the Judge 


THE MADELEINE. 

of the world, with angels and men on either side, and 


Mary Magdalene praying for the condemned. The inside is walled and paved in 





























































7 2 


Cities of the World'. 


marble, with decorations in gold and rich colors. Through the stained-glass win¬ 
dows of the dome marvelous lights shine on polished columns and grand pieces of 
sculpture, fresco and painting. La Madeleine stands on a triangle-shaped place, 
at the apex of which, in front of the Church, two great sections of The Boule¬ 
vard meet. One on the west is from the Parc Monceaux ; the other runs north¬ 
eastward and ends on the Place du Opera, a couple of blocks away. This, too, is a 
center for half a dozen important streets and boulevards, one of which runs southward 
to the Rue de Rivoli ; but about midway it spreads out into the eight-sided square of 
the Place Vendome, with the statue of Napoleon in the center, on a great stone shaft, 

which is an enlarged copy 
of the Column of Trajan 
at Rome. It is covered 
with bas reliefs illustrat¬ 
ing the battles of the 
Emperor, made upon 
bronze plates cast out of 
Austrian and Russian 
cannon. The square is. 
faced by majestic, but 
monotonous -looking 
buildings ; it overlooks 
the center of the Garden 
of the Tuileries at the 
other end of the street. 
This Jardin des Tuileries 
is an oblong park about 
as large as the Champs- 
Elysees. It is made up of beautiful terraces with rows of orange trees, delightful walks 
and groves, flower gardens and grass plots, adorned with statues, vases, fountains and 
basins of water, round which the children play from morning till night, and nurses sit 
watching their little charges. 

The Palace of the Tuileries, which was built by Catherine de Medici as a royal 
residence in 1564, gave the name to these gardens. During centuries of service as an 
imperial residence, they had become connected by galleries with the Louvre a quarter 
of a mile to the east, and with it made the most magnificent building in the Empire ; but 
in the Commune in 1871, the Tuileries part was nearly all destroyed. The pavilion 
nearest the river has been restored, and the north wing rebuilt, and in time the ruins of 
the Palace will probably be forgotten in the new halls and galleries, which will stand 
handsomer than of old, stretching away to the Louvre, beyond the Place du Carrousel. 

















Paris . 


73 


Two bridges cross the Seine here : Pont Solferino from about the center of the Gardens 
and the ancient Pont Royale from the western corner of the Palace. On three sides, the 
Palace of the Tuileries overlooks a Court which is separated by a railing from the Place 
du Carrousel. This is the heart of the French capital. It was once an open space 
between the Court of the Tuileries and the squares of the Louvre, but when Napoleon 
connected the two Palaces between which it stood, the Place du Carrousel became 
flanked with galleries which stood above the street, so that it was still a public 



GARDEN OF THE TUILERIES. 

thoroughfare. The Place was given the name Carrousel after a fSte, which was 
a sort of horse-back ball, given by Louis XIV. in 1662. In the center stands another 
Triumphal Arch, which was begun at about the same time as that of l’Etoile. It has 
three arches and is made of bronze and marble, with embellishments of statues and bas 
reliefs. Upon the top is a figure representing the Restoration in a chariot drawn by 
splendid horses, copied after those on the portal of St. Mark’s in Venice, which were 
brought here as a trophy, but sent back by Emperor Francis. The Louvre has a great 
quadrangle of buildings at the eastern end, with double galleries, or wings, stretching out, 















7 4 


Cities of the World. 


on both sides, to the tiers above the Place du Carrousel. The Louvre is the most 
important building of Paris, both in architecture and on account of its vast treasures of 



THE LOUVRE. 



art. Parts of it are very ancient, too. The hollow square at the eastern end was begun 
some time during 1500 for a royal residence. After centuries this quadrangle was com¬ 
pleted, then enlarged by add¬ 
ing the wings. The kings and 
queens of France were very 
fond of putting up splendid 
palaces : and as one came after 
another, this royal mansion 
grew in beauty and magnifi¬ 
cence. On the fagade toward 
the east are twenty-eight great 
Corinthian columns in pairs ; 
this is five hundred feet long 
and ninety feet high. The 
newer buildings and galleries 
connecting with the Tuileries 
grand gallery in the louvre. have massive showy fagades 
































Paris . 


75 


and pavilions roofed with domes, Corinthian half-columns, caryatids and colossal 
statues. Since the latter part of the eighteenth century the Old Louvre, as the quad¬ 
rangle is called, has been used as a museum, and now the whole of the great pile is 
devoted to collections, which, taken together, are the most valuable, interesting and 
beautiful in the w orld. They have been growing under the best taste and care in France 
since the sixteenth century . The galleries, halls and all the apartments are so vast in 
extent that it takes two hours to walk through them without stopping. The apartments 
themselves are rich and beautiful, while their well-arranged collections comprise 
magnificent pictures, rare sculptures and curiosities, with antiquities of ancient Egyptian, 
Greek and Roman art. 



BRIDGE OF ARTS AND LOUVRE PALACE. 


The Bridge of Arts crosses the river from the center of the Old Louvre to the 
Place in front of the crescent-shaped facade of the Palace of the Institute. The Insti¬ 
tute of France is a great society made up of five branch societies, called Academies, 
each devoted to special branches of learning or art. United they form the intellectual 
guide of the Republic,—just as there are heads of the military, naval and other 



















76 


Cities of the World\ 


important departments of the nation. The Institute is devoted to the progress of 
science, general usefulness and the glory of France ; not so much to teach as to judge. 
An artist or author who is recognized by the Institute is famous and successful, but if 
they ignore or criticise him unfavorably he is condemned. Each Academy, according 
to its own special branch, exists to help along what is good and annihilate what is poor. 
Above the Corinthian portico overlooking the water is an immense dome, while on either 
side the long arcade wings extend toward the east and west. The courts within are 
used as public thoroughfares, but are flanked by the public and private buildings of the 
different branches of the Institute, the great library, and valuable collections of art, 
science and antiquities. 

The School of Fine Arts, near by, was founded about 1650 for the teaching 
of painting, sculpture, engraving, gem-cutting and architecture. It occupies the Palace 



PONT AU CHANGE, PALACE OF JUSTICE AND THEATRE DU CHATELET. 

of Fine Arts, a pile of massive and handsome buildings of the present century, standing 
between the Pont du Carrousel and the Pont des Arts. This palace abounds in artistic 
beauty, with its fine gates, columns, statues and reliefs, while it contains an excellent art 
library, models, drawings, portraits and rare pictures. Exhibitions of the students’ 










Paris . 


77 


work are held here once a year, when all are carefully examined and criticised by the 
Academy of Fine Arts. In this vicinity there are many other general and special art 
schools, for in Paris the beautiful seems to be the grand pursuit of life, after which, if 
there is time, the homely and practical side may come. Adjoining the Institute on the 
east the Hotel des Monnaies, or the Mint, stretches a fa$ade of Ionic columns for almost 
four hundred feet along the broad quay. La Monnaie, as it is called, contains, beside 
the departments where the money of France is made, financial offices and an extensive 
museum. In the statue-adorned vestibule there are cabinets of metals used in coining, 
ancient coins, medals and postage stamps. In the principal hall are cases of French 
coins arranged according to date from the earliest times down to the present ; other 
cabinets are of foreign 
money of every country, 
among which is a Chinese 
coin of 1700 B. C.; an¬ 
other room shows models 
of instruments and fur¬ 
naces used in coining; 
and these are but a part 
of the objects of interest 
in the Mint of Paris. 

The vicinity of the 
Louvre, on either side of 
the river, is a part of the 
great French city never 
to be forgotten. The 
Rue de Rivoli, with its 
gay stores, bright cafes 
and massive buildings of 
light-colored limestone, 
carved and ornamented 
everywhere, is next to 
the Boulevards in 
beauty and life. Immense 
open squares afford space 
for statues and fountains, while a solid grandeur is behind all in the imposing buildings 
many stories high. Even the private houses are built around huge blocks and, towering 
skyward with six or seven floors, one above another, are large enough to be occupied by 
twenty separate families. The different apartments have a common staircase from the 
inner court, which is reached by a gateway on the street, kept by a porter. 



RUE DE RIVOLI AND TOWER OF ST. JACQUES. 
















78 


Cities of the World. 


Above the New Louvre, the northern wing now occupied by the Ministry of France r 
there opens upon the Rue de Rivoli the bright and busy Square of the Royal Palace, or 
Place du Palais Royal. On the right and left are fine hotels, the easterly one being 
the Grand Hotel du Louvre, one of the three largest in Paris. The ground floor of this 
is taken up by some great stores, for which the Place is noted. On the north side is 
the Palais Royal, built and occupied by Cardinal Richelieu. Until the death of the 
statesman-priest it was called the Palais-Cardinal ; but from that time until the Com¬ 
mune of ’71 it was occupied as a royal residence or by members of the imperial 



PALAIS ROYAL PLACE. 

family. Now, after being completely restored, it is mainly used by the State Council, 
and for objects of historic interest. Beyond the Palais proper are the gardens and 
arcades of the Palais Royal, an immense block of jewelry and fancy stores built 
around a garden seven hundred and fifty feet long and about three hundred and fifty 
wide. It is shaded by rows of elms and limes, and filled with fountains and statues. 
The arcades once held the best shops in Paris ; they are still fine, but are scarcely 
equal to those of the Boulevards ; the floors above contain restaurants and cafes. 
Beyond the rear of the Palais Royal is the Bibliotheque Nationale, or National Library,,. 

























































Paris . 


79 


a block of buildings which holds the largest and finest library in the world. It contains 
one million and three hundred thousand books, over a hundred thousand valuable 
manuscripts, five thousand rare engravings, and a vast collection of coins and medals. 
The book-cases placed in line would make about forty miles of excellently-bound books 
of the best editions published. The buildings surround five inner courts and are plain 
but imposing, while the interior displays some very fine decorations. Beyond this 
Bibliotheque Nationale, still further to the eastward from the Palais Royal, is the Bourse, 
or Exchange, a handsome building surrounded by Corinthian columns and copied from 



PALAIS ROYAL GARDEN. 

the Temple of Vespasian in the Forum at Rome. It stands in the center of an 
immense square, shaded with trees. The Parquet, which corresponds to the Floor of 
the New York Exchange, is surrounded by a pillared gallery from which, during the 
few hours of business, visitors look down upon the tumultuous scene of excited brokers, 
yelling and gesticulating wildly. The Bank of France, lying east of the Palais Royal, 
is a plain, substantial building, of little interest outside its business. On the western 
side of the Palais Royal is the Theatre Frangaise, or French Theater, which is ranked 
first among the places of amusement in the city. The handsomest part of the build¬ 
ing is the vestibule, which contains fine statues and figures. The foyer, corridors and 
















Bo 


Cities of the World. 



hall are richly decorated and well arranged. A small square in front of the Theatre, 
with bronze statues and two fountains, stands at the foot of the Avenue de l’Opera, a 
broad, straight thoroughfare, lined with blocks of enormous buildings, leading to the 
Place de l’Opera. From here 
the superb New Opera House, or 
the National Academy of Music, 
looks down the avenue into the 
heart of Paris. L’Opera is the 
largest in the world, covering 
nearly three acres of ground. 

Between four and five hundred 
houses were removed for the 
site, and the richest materials of 
Europe were brought to erect 
the building. The principal en¬ 
trances are at each end of the 


INTERIOR OF THE BOURSE. 

front, through two sculptured 
arches, which stand out from 
the long arcade of the por¬ 
tico. The second story is set 
with Corinthian columns in 
colored marble, and is orna¬ 
mented with gilt and bronze ; 
above are magnificent mosa¬ 
ics and reliefs, and a low 

. r , . dome crowns the center in 

front of a huge pediment on the point of which is a group of beautiful statuary, corre¬ 
sponding to other groups on the roof, above the entrances. L’Opera is entered 
through the gilded gates of the portico. The magnificence of the interior is scarcely 


THE BOURSE (STOCK EXCHANGE). 






























Paris. 


81 


to be compared with what we have seen outside. Directly opposite is 4 he Grand Stair¬ 
case with its dividing flight of white marble steps, on the lower half of which fifty people 
can stand abreast ; balustrades and hand rails are of precious stone, tiers of balconies 
above are separated by colored marble columns rising to the third story, while the bril¬ 
liant light of hundreds of lamps is shed all around on the sumptuous beauty of every 
kind of desirable decoration. The Salle, or theater proper, is also elaborately decorated ; 
the ceilings are painted with allegorical scenes on copper ; the rich curtain is of plain 



THEATRE FRANCAISE. 


red and gold, while stage boxes, galleries and walls lack neither sculpture, paintings nor 
mosaics to make them gorgeous and luxurious. The stage is nearly two hundred feet 
in height, almost as wide, and seventy-five feet deep. The Grand Foyer, or lobby, is 
handsomest of all ; it extends the full length of the first floor of the building; it is 
lighted by gilded lusters and huge candelabra, hanging in long lines in front of great 
columns which, from floor to ceiling, extend the length of the apartment in pairs. The 
decorations look as if made of solid gold, while at the end a huge mirror is placed so as 
to make the hall appear of unlimited length. Above the doors, and in every possible spot, 
are pieces of sculpture, painting and reliefs, all with reference to music and art, some of 
which are so fine that the Grand Foyer might well be called a gallery of art. 

Eastward from l’Opera,the Boulevard with its handsome stores, blocks of houses and 










82 


Cities of the World. 


throngs of people gradually reaches the poorer quarter at the two most famous gates of 
Paris, St. Denis and St. Martin, triumphal arches, which were once the northern 
entrances to the City, through the ancient ramparts. St. Denis, the finer of the two gates, 
was built in honor of the conquests of Louis XIV. in Holland and Germany ; huge 
obelisks in relief upon the fa9ades are ornamented with sculptures of the trophies taken 
in the Netherlands. St. Martin Gate has one large and two small archways, and in 
simple decorations commemorates other victories of “ Louis le Grand.” The Gates 
stand near together where the thickly settled streets are crowded with vehicles and 



OPERA HOUSE. 

people. From here, two great Boulevards run for miles through the city, crossing the 
river and leading far away beyond the walls to the suburbs on the southern outskirts. 
Beneath these Boulevards are the principal canals of the vast network of sewers which 
underlies Paris and keeps it one of the healthiest cities in the world. For an hour every 
morning when the water is turned on an army of housemaids may be seen with their 
brooms, washing the streets, so that when the traps are closed the thoroughfares are 
neat and clean from one end of the city to the other, the refuse of the previous day 
being carried away under ground. The sewers are so well built and ventilated that 














































Paris. 


83 



of the canals, often carry parties of ladies and 


•cars, arranged to run on the ledges 
gentlemen for miles over them. 

The catacombs, also 
famous subterranean pas¬ 
sages of Paris, were made 
by quarrying under the 
city for the limestone of 
which most of the build¬ 
ings are made. They are 
on the south side of the 
river and are now almost 
completely lined with 
bones and skulls, placed 
here from the cemeteries, 
or remains of the bodies 
rudely thrown in during 
the Revolution and the 
Reign of Terror. East¬ 
ward from Porte St. Martin 
on the Boulevard is the 
Place de la Republique, 
from which large streets 
and small run in every 
direction. It resembles 
the Place de la Concorde, 
and when the present 
work upon it is finished it 
will be one of the finest 
squares in the city. Be¬ 
low the Gates is the con¬ 
servatory of Arts and 
Trades, one of the greatest 
industrial schools and mu¬ 
seums in Europe, once a grand staircase, opera house. 

Benedictine Abbey. The buildings are of the Gothic style and very fine ; they contain 
large collections in models and machinery of every kind. The Salle-Echo on the ground 
floor is like the Whispering Gallery of St. Paul’s in London. The school teaches and 
trains workmen in every branch of applied science. Beyond the Conservatory a side 
street from the Rue St. Martin leads to the Halles Centrales, the great provision markets 





















8 4 


Cities of the World. 


of Paris. This vast structure is of iron covered with zinc, and consists of ten pavilions 
with covered streets between, across which a boulevard over a hundred feet wide runs to 

the Rue de Rivoli, one square 
eastward of the Louvre and 
westward of the Tower of St. 
Jacques, which stands on the 
Rue de Rivoli between the 
cross - town boulevards, of 
which St. Martin is one. This 
square Gothic tower is all that 
remains of an ancient church, 
taken down about a hun¬ 
dred years ago. In the hall 
on the ground floor is a statue 
of the philosopher Pascal, who 
made some experiments with 
air on the summit of the 
Tower. St. Jacques is a hun¬ 
dred and seventy-five feet 
saint-denis gate. high and affords the finest 

view that can be obtained of Paris. Up and down the river are the arched bridges, 
broad tree-lined quays, great 
buildings and squares. Through 
the city are the pretty green 
“lungs,” as they have been 
called in London, and a laby¬ 
rinth of streets and boulevards. 

The main avenue which we 
have followed from the Gate 
of Maillot through the Champs 
Elysees, past the Jardin des 
Tuileries and the Louvre, is the 
same that lies at the foot of the 
Tower; beyond, it passes the 
Hotel de Ville, or Town Hall, 
which is a new building scarcely 
finished to take the place of the 
old one, which, until the Com¬ 
mune of ’71, had served the saint martin gate. 






































Paris. 


85 




town for more than a hundred years. The new buildings are modeled after the old 
ones in the form of a vast rectangle, containing three inner courts, surrounded by public 
offices and gorgeous reception 
rooms. The four fa£ades have 
niches in which eight-foot stat¬ 
ues of more than one hundred 
eminent people born in Paris 
are to stand. Many names have 
been already chosen, but twen¬ 
ty-four places will be left for 
those yet to be called great. 

Beyond the Hotel de Ville the 
busy, crowded Rivoli passes St. 

Paul’s church and enters the 
Place de la Bastile, the square 
of greater historic interest than 
any other in Paris. In the cen¬ 
ter stands the Column of July, 
on the site of the old prison 
fortress of the Bastile, “ the em¬ 
blem of tyranny ” which the 
Revolutionists demolished on 
the 14th of July, 1789, so that the sewers of paris. 

not one stone was left on another. This is one of the most beautiful monuments in the 
capital. A great square, ornamented with bronze medallions, supports the white marble 

pedestal, also decorated with 
bronze, on which rests the 
fluted Column, of bronze, with 
the names of the‘‘July he¬ 
roes ” emblazoned in gilt let¬ 
ters. Above the lantern on 
the top is a figure of Liberty 
holding a torch in one hand 
and fragments of broken 
chains in the other. Within 
the Column a staircase leads 
to the top, from which there 
is a fine view ; beneath there 
are large vaults, where the 


CATACOMBS. 



























86 


Cities of the World\ 


remains of those who fell here during the Revolution rest in stone coffins. The handsome 
store-lined streets, pretty gardens and throngs of people surrounding La Bastile show no 
traces of the great events which have taken place here ; the times have changed : history 
not locality, preserves the story of the thrilling scenes of the Revolution of 1789, the Insur¬ 
rection of 1848 and the Commune of 1871. Beneath La Bastile is the Canal St. Martin, 
by which barges and small tug-steamers enter Paris from the north-eastern suburbs and 
reach the Seine under the shrubberies of the Boulevard Richard le Noir. The Canal 



INTERIOR OF THE HALLES CENTRALES. 


meets the Seine beneath a quay opposite the Jardin des Plantes, which covers seventy- 
five acres of ground, beautifully laid out, and containing the larger part of the institutions 
of Paris for the study of the natural sciences. Museums, lecture-halls, parks and 
galleries are devoted to collections of natural history, geology, minerals, and botany, 
zoological and botanical gardens, libraries and laboratories, all of which are very fine and 
well arranged. The Boulevard, crossing the water by the Pont d’Austerlitz, here begins 
its southern semi-circle by separating the Jardin des Plantes from the Hospital of 
Saltpetriere, which covers even more acres than the Jardin, and although only devoted 
to the care of aged and insane women, is said to be the largest in the world. Paris, with 











































































Paris. 


87 



all its beauty and happiness must have a great deal of sorrow and sickness, for there are 
about twenty hospitals, beside a large number of other institutions for the half-sick, blind, 
deaf and dumb, insane and 
otherwise helpless. 

From the Tower of St. 

Jacques the river is seen to 
divide below the Canal St. Mar¬ 
tin and to pass the Isle of St. 

Louis. This is connected with 
both the main banks by a bridge 
at the upper point, and, at the 
southern end, with the north 
shore of another and a larger 
island. The He St. Louis is a 
dull and retired spot in the 
midst of one of the liveliest 
parts of the city; it contains 
little that is interesting except 
the Lambert Mansion and some 
other ancient buildings. But the 
lower island, which is both 
broader and longer, extends 
from about opposite the Hotel 
de Ville to the Monnaie, or 
nearly to the Louvre. This is 
the lie de la Cite, the most an¬ 
tique part of Paris, and the cen¬ 
ter of the city in the ancient 
days of the Middle Ages, when 
that small district marked by the 
Inner Boulevards was Paris, in 
three divisions, La Ville on the 
North bank, the Latin Quarter 
or L’Universit^ on the south, La 
Cite on the island between. It is 
very closely built up, crossed by the parallel streets from St. Denis and St. Martin Gates, 
skirted by fine quays and connected with the mainland by many bridges. On the eastern end 
is the grand old Cathedral of Notre Dame, on ground that has been occupied by a church 
since the fourth century. The Cathedral itself was built during the twelfth and thirteen cen- 


NOTRE DAME. 



















































88 


Cities of the World. 


turies. It is in the Gothic style, and on the front rises three stories high, with two square 
and massive towers above. The three doors are made in Gothic recesses and occupy 
the entire north of the front, with great Gothic windows on either side, a Catherine wheel 
window above. The whole of the imposing fa9ade is adorned with columns, rich carving 
and sculptures. The outside of the body of the church and the transept too are very 
beautiful. Where the transept crosses the nave, a spire of wood rises, which is 
covered with lead and about one hundred and fifty feet high. The columns, arches 
and stained-glass windows and wood carving inside the Cathedral are beautiful and 
interesting for so old a building, which has been many times almost demolished by the 
ravages of war. The chapels contain a number of monuments and fine frescos *, the 



HOTEL DIEU AND NOTRE DAME. 

treasury holds some very ancient sacred relics ; and in one of the towers is a bell brought 
from Sebastopol as a trophy ; the other has the great Bourdon de Notre-Dame, one of 
the largest bells in the world. The Cathedral is surrounded by shrubbery and open 
squares, in one of which there is a beautiful little Gothic fountain ; and on the other, 
the Parvis Notre Dame, the new Hotel Dieu, stands at right angles with the Cathe¬ 
dral. The original Hotel Dieu was probably the oldest hospital in Europe, founded in 



























Paris . 


89 


660 ; this one is an immense pile, made up of three distinct sets of buildings which 
serve for a large hospital, and a college for training in medicine and surgery, famous 
throughout all Europe. 

Below the Hotel Dieu, which with the Parvis Notre Dame occupies the entire width 
of La Cite, is the famous old Bridge of Notre Dame, connecting the main street of the 
island with St. Martin Boulevard. Opposite the great hospital are the flower markets, 
the headquarters of the Parisian police, the firemen and health officers, which with five 
buildings of the Tribunal de Commerce are separated by the second of the parallel 
boulevards from the Palais de Justice. This vast collection of buildings occupies nearly 



TRIBUNAL OF COMMERCE. 

all the remaining portion of La Cite. The land was once covered by the ancient palace 
of the Kings of France, presented to the supreme court of justice in the fifteenth cen¬ 
tury. Four towers of the old palace are still standing, which, with the Kitchens of St. 
Louis and the Sainte Chapelle, are all that are left of the original buildings. Even the 
new buildings were so destroyed by the Commune that most of the Palace of Justice 
which we now see are mainly buildings of the last twenty years. In the Grand Court, 
adjoining the boulevard, are the broad steps of the principal entrance, adorned by 
































9 o 


Cities of the World. 


statues and surmounted by a great square dome. The court-room is one of the largest 
in the world, being about two hundred and fifty feet long and almost two hundred wide, 
in the form of two vaulted galleries ; it is embellished with statues and decorations, and 
opened into by many courts. Other galleries and halls of the Palace are taken up by 
the offices of the law. From the Grand Court three vaulted passages lead toward the 
Sainte Chapelle, which was in olden times the palace chapel, and is now, to-day, the most 
perfect gem of Gothic architecture in the world. The “Mass of the Holy Ghosts,” the 
only service now held in the chapel, is celebrated once a year when the courts open 
after the autumn vacation. It consists of a lower chapel, containing tombs of saints, 
from which a spiral staircase leads to the upper chapel, where the service is held. The 
magnificent stained-glass windows framed in beautiful tracery, take up almost the entire 
walls, while the other parts of the interior are richly decorated in many colors, harmon¬ 
izing with the windows. Statues of the Apostles are placed against the pillars, and 
behind the altar is a Gothic canopy in carved wood. The lower part of the Palais de 
Justice on the north side of the river is occupied by the Conciergerie, a famous prison of 
France, whose grim walls and strong locks have confined Marie Antoinette, Danton, 
Robespierre, and many others whose names will never fade from the history of France. 
Beyond the Palais are the flower-beds and brick houses of the Place Dauphine, and the 
renowned New Bridge which stretches from the left to the right bank of the Seine, across 
the western end of La Cit6, with a notable bronze statue of Henry IV. in the center. 

South of La Cite is the thickly settled Latin Quarter, with its schools and colleges, 
centuries old. The famous Sarbonne, built by Cardinal Richelieu, is here. It contains 
lecture halls, class-rooms and four laboratories of the University of France, beside a 
large public library. Near by is the College of France, where free public lectures are 
given by eminent scholars and teachers ; the Polytechnic School; institutes of medicine, 
law, arts and all branches of knowledge. The Pantheon is not far away from the Sar¬ 
bonne, on the continuation of St. Martin Boulevard. This was begun as a church in 
1764, but before it was finished was converted into a temple to the great men of the 
nation by the Convention of 1741 ; but a late emperor again made it a church of St. 
Genevieve. The great and beautiful building is in appearance partly a church and 
partly a temple, with its colonnaded peristyle, beautifully carved pediment and lofty 
dome above, surrounded by columns ; the same is seen within,—lofty arches, galleries 
and pillars, majestic and magnificent. The fine frescos in the cupolas are but a part of 
the works of art in painting, sculpture and statuary which still tell the story of the two 
uses of the Pantheon. A short street from St. Genevieve leads to the Gardens and 
Palace of Luxembourg, facing a broad, straight avenue running to the Palace of the 
Institute. Luxembourg was built by Marie de Medicis, in the Florentine style. It is 
adorned with pillars, and consists of pavilions which are no longer royal apartments, 
but have been converted into the use of galleries for paintings and works of art by great 





THE NEW HOTEL DE V1LLE, PARIS. 











































































































































































92 


Cities of the World. 


artists, and to the Senate during the building of the new Hotel de Ville. The halls and 
galleries and other parts of the palace are of handsome size and beautifully decorated. 
The grounds, representing the famous Boboli Gardens at Florence, are the only ones 
in Paris which have been allowed to remain in the Renaissance style. They are laid 
out with lawns, marble fountains, flower-beds, balustrades, steps, terraces, shade trees 
and statues, through which an avenue runs to the celebrated observatory of Paris. 
This is a very important little place in connection with the science of astronomy, and 


MILLER. FISH SALESWOMAN. MASON. GASMAN. 



COMMISSAIRE. WASHERWOMAN. MECHANIC. PERAMBULATING PLUMBER. 

contains a rare museum of instruments over which astronomers pore with delight, 
especially the great parallactic telescope in the copper dome. The meridian of Paris 
runs through the center of the Observatory, which is connected by telegraph with 
others of the greatest importance in Europe. 

Beside all the gayety and all the grandeur in Paris, there is a great deal of industry 












NEW BRIDGE 



































































































































94 


Cities of the World. 

and hard work. There are over two millions of people to live and be supported 
here. The majority of them earn their own living, save money and are happy. An 
immense trade is carried on at the shops and stores, while in making rich and costly 
fabrics Paris leads the world. There are many factories of all kinds throughout the 
city, but particularly for watches, clocks, scientific instruments, silks, valuable shawls, 
and the famous Gobelins tapestries, which have been standing in the same place in 
the southern part of Paris since 1450. 

Paris fancy goods, known as articles de Paris , are a special branch of trade, 
and are made with so much refined taste that they are always in demand ; but 
about every kind of French manufactures have the peculiarity of elegance in 
form and color, cheapness and durability. There are about four hundred and 
fifty thousand artisans in Paris, who, whatever their trade, labor with clever 
hands and fine judgment for pay that ranges from eighty cents to a dollar and a 
quarter per day; but some, especially quick and able, make as much as four dollars 
a day; there are all sorts of people at work here, artists, scholars, merchants, 
mechanics and laborers, from all nations. Paris boasts of being the most cosmopolitan 
city in Europe, with all that is remarkable and characteristic of the entire French 
nation gathered in and about it. The great walls and moat make it a gigantic fortress. 
Round it lie a number of independent forts, each with a history dear to the people, 
whether of glorious victories or sad defeats ; and adjacent are famous parks and 
chateaux. At St. Denis, on the north, is the Cathedral La Basilique, once the burial 
place of the French kings ; on the west lies the palace and garden of St. Cloud, the 
favorite residence of the Napoleons, where many important conferences were held, 
and great events that affected the entire government started; on the south-west 
is old Versailles, which has been associated with long chapters of the public and private 
history of the French Court ever since 1682. The magnificence of the chateaux, Grand 
Trianon, Petit Trianon, and all the palaces, the gardens, the celebrated fountains which 
grace this town and noble park,—these alone repay many a traveler who has crossed 
high seas for the sight of Paris ; still further south is Fontainebleau, splendid and 
beautiful now, with wonderful associations of three centuries clinging to its massive 
walls and verdant surroundings. The extensive palace, made out of a medieval fortress 
in the first part of 1500, stands at the south-west side of the town of Fontainebleau in 
“the most beautiful forest in France.” 

To the French people all these environs, with their valuable museums and 
galleries, are as a part of the beloved capital, the grandest, the most beautiful, the most 
desirable place in the world. “ The whole nation is accustomed to be governed from 
that center, to follow every movement that originates there, whether it leads to revolution, 
to monarchy, to imperialism, or to republicanism.” Long live the Republic! 


95 


Lyons. 

Lyons is the most important manufacturing city of France, and, after Paris, the largest. 
It stands where a long, low and narrow peninsula has been made by the rivers Rhone 
and Saone. At the southern end of the town the Rhone receives the waters of the 
Saone and then flows directly southward to the Gulf of Lyons, on the Mediterranean. 
The city extends to the low hills surrounding the peninsula, and is encircled by a wall 
of fortifications thirteen miles long. From the rivers, gradually becoming less closely 



LYON. 

set with buildings—some of which are large and handsome, others small and old—the 
town stretches out toward beautiful vineyards, gardens and villas. Water-ways and rail¬ 
ways branching from it show Lyons to be an important commercial city, and the looms, 
factories and markets tell that its trade is chiefly its own manufactures and the products 
of the vicinity. Silk stuffs of all kinds made here are the most important in the world ; 
while in other mills are made nets, cotton goods, blankets and hats ; and some factories 









9 6 


Cities of the World. 


and shops supply a large trade in gold and silver lace, chemicals, drugs, liquors, earthen 
ware and other things. This busy town has about four hundred thousand people living 
in it, about as many as Birmingham, and more than our own Boston in Massachusetts. 
The two rivers are crossed by twelve bridges over the Saone, to the western part of the 
city ; and by seven over the Rhone, which lies to the eastward. There are about thirty 
quays lining the four banks, to accommodate the large traffic which centers at Lyons, 
the “great warehouse of Southern France and Switzerland.” 

Soon after entering the city the Saone makes a bold eastward curve toward the Rhone 
at the' foot of the hill of Fourvieres, on the west bank. Convents, hospitals and semina¬ 
ries stand here overlooking the town, while high above all, on the summit, is the famous 
cathedral, Notre Dame de Fourvieres, visited by one and one-half million pilgrims every 
year. It stands over four hundred feet high, and has been called Fourvieres from the 
ancient forum , which stood on the spot in the days of the Romans, who occupied the town 
about fifty years before Christ. The interesting old church, with its lofty tower and 
figure of the Virgin, two hundred feet high in air, was built in the ninth century. From 
this hill the view of Lyons is very fine. Below are the splendid quays, full of merchan¬ 
dise, crowded with ships and busy people ; opposite is the narrowest part of the peninsula, 
except where the rivers meet, and the principal part of the city in the great square, 
called the Terreaux. Here are the Hotel de Ville, famous throughout the Republic for 
its size and beauty ; the Opera House and the Palais St. Pierre, which was once a 
convent but is now an institute for science and literature, the art school and library, 
picture gallery, and museums of sculpture, archeology and natural history. Broad, 
straight streets and public squares, with fine buildings, extend southward to the 
great Belle Cour, which is one of the largest squares in Europe. On the east and 
on the west are large monumental fronts, while in the center is a statue of Louis XIV. 
on horseback. Along the quay, past the Cour, is the fine old military hospital of Hotel 
Dieu. Other places , broad avenues and fine buildings in this vicinity extend to the 
Perache Quarter, which is the aristocratic part of Lyons, and about half-way from 
Fourvieres to the meeting place of the rivers. Below are the railway station, docks and 
factories, prison and arsenal, not beautiful parts of Lyons, but full of life and interest. 
Across the Rhone from this lower part of the city is a wretched quarter of working¬ 
men’s houses, crowded with old buildings eight or ten stories high, through which it 
seems impossible to put any broad thoroughfare ; but above, opposite the Terreaux, is 
the long range of medical college buildings, and, extending to the eastward, the newer 
part of the city, with fine, broad streets, comfortable and even handsome blocks of 
houses. It is not far from this pleasant quarter of Lyons—which is growing very fast— 
that the city park lies, being north-eastward from the Terreaux. The Parc du Tete 
d’Or, with its lawns and trees, its botanical and pharmaceutical gardens, green-houses of 
orchids, palm trees and rare plants, and its cages of wild animals, covers almost as much 


Marseilles . 


97 


ground as Hyde Park, in London, and is said to be one of the finest in France. On 
the whole it is a stately city that lies here upon the rivers, within the circle of the 
garden-covered hills; fine old Roman aqueducts tell of ancient palmy days, while 
crowded quays, bustling streets and smoke curling from a hundred chimneys bespeak 
for Lyons a growth with the times, and greater wealth, life and importance to-day than ever 
before. Although Lyons is about two hundred miles from the sea, it is constantly in 



MARSEILLES. 

communication with it, through large vessels which make their way back and forth, up 
and down the rapid, picturesque stream. The Rhone enters the Gulf of Lyons so near 
Marseilles that the river may almost be said to flow from the largest manufacturing city 
of the Republic to its greatest seaport. The entrance to Marseilles is guarded by three 
fortified islands and marked by light-houses. Here, outside, are also great docks or 
basins, extending for over a mile, and including about a hundred acres, with magnificent 





















9 8 


Cities of the World. 


great warehouses looming up behind them. Now, a round peninsula is seen standing 
out on the right side, with its military parade ; beyond is the Chateau du Pharo, which 
Napoleon III. built himself for a marine villa; now the narrow strait is reached, 
guarded on the north by Fort St. Jean and on the south by Fort St. Nicklas ; beyond is 
the inlet, running right up into the heart of the town. This is the famous Old Harbor, 
or Port of Marseilles, and, lying around like the seats of an amphitheater, is the ancient 
town—the Massilia which Julius Caesar took from the Greeks after they had occupied 
it for more than six hundred years. The Port covers nearly seventy acres, and can 
accommodate twelve hundred vessels. Altogether the harbor of Marseilles, old and new, 
has an area of nearly five hundred acres and four and a half miles of quays, which, it is 
said, is not enough for the immense traffic of the city. From the margin of the inlet 
the ground, rising on all sides, is thickly set with buildings and encircled beyond by hills 
covered by vineyards and olive gardens, dotted here and there with white country 
houses. The old town lies on the north side of the inlet, with the spire of the ancient 
Church of Accoules marking the center. At the foot of the spire is a ‘‘Calvary,” 
and a curious modern chapel built in rock-work. Here the old streets are narrow 
and closely lined with irregularly-built houses ; but few ancient buildings or even ruins now 
remain. There is the new Cathedral of Notre Dame of Mount Carmel in about the 
center, near the coast; standing where the Massilian citadel did when besieged by 
Caesar, it is on the site once occupied by a temple to Diana, and before then by an altar 
of Baal. The cathedral is scarcely finished now. It is built of gray Florentine stone, 
blended with white, a Byzantine basilica in the form of a great Latin cross. The 
Bishop’s Palace is near by and a grand seminary, both fine buildings, which are connected 
with the newer part of the town by a few broad modern streets, that have been 
pushed through the old quarters. The main thoroughfare of Marseilles extends through 
the center of the city to the eastern outskirts, from the inner end of the harbor. On 
this, near the Port, is the Bourse, with its Corinthian portico and sculptured vestibule 
and handsome interior, larger than the Bourse of Paris. The Hall of the Chamber of 
Commerce is the finest part of the building, its walls being magnificently decorated with 
paintings and gildings. The main street crosses many other fine and busy avenues, 
containing great stores, cafes and restaurants, some of which are almost as splendid as 
those of Paris ; at the upper end is the Longchamps Palace of Arts, which was built 
about fifteen years ago. With its two long pillared wings and the beautiful fountain 
in the center this is said to be one of the most beautiful buildings of La Belle France. 
The terminus of the Marseilles Canal is here, and bringing the waters of the Durance 
into the city, have made the dry and bare suburbs into blooming, fertile gardens. 
The second great thoroughfare of Marseilles runs the length of the town and 
crosses the first above the Bourse. It extends from the triumphal arch of the Aix 
Gate at the north to the opposite suburbs, where the broad Prado Promenades make 


Marseilles. 


99 


an angle near the Hippodrome and the park of the Palais Bor^ly, where all the Grecian 
remains of Marseilles are collected. Toward the sea from here the rocky hill of Notre 
Dame de la Garde is seen, one of the most venerated churches on the Mediterranean 
shores. Sailors look with devotion toward the gilded dome and statue of the virgin 
holding the Infant Jesus in her left arm and extending the other toward them in 
blessing. Within, this Byzantine shrine is filled with the votive offerings of sailors, 



FOUNTAIN OF LONGCHAMPS PALACE OF ARTS, MARSEILLES. 

fishermen and their wives : miniature ships and ostrich eggs hang from the ceiling, 
while many other quaint and strange gifts are seen from grateful souls long since 
passed away. On both sides of the steps below Notre Dame are shops and booths, 
with medals, chaplets, and other objects of devotion for sale. 

It is on this side of the port and in the southern half of the city that the handsome 
streets and buildings of Marseilles are seen. On the Rue St. Fevreol is the palace-like build- 




























































IOO 


Cities of the World. 


ing of the new Hotel de la Prefecture, adorned with statues and bas reliefs, and containing 
a fine staircase, a large reception room, decorated with paintings. On the Rue Paradis is 
the Palais de Justice, with fine pediment and peristyle decorated with bas reliefs, and 



NOTRE DAME DE LA GARDE, MARSEILLES. 

outer hall surrounded by pillars of red marble. The imposing new School of Art is near 
the center of the city, with the Library and other notable educational institutions. The 
other parts of Marseilles, although not so imposing, do their share toward the beauty of 
the city by their brisk trade in shipping and manufacturing, which employ thousands of 
people and bring in a great deal of money. In population it is about as large as Lyons, 















Nzmes, Toulouse and Bordeaux. 


IOI 


but being the packet station for Italy and the East, and connecting with many 
cities by rail, it has also a large number of transient stayers, people who are constantly 
coming and going. 

Marseilles in the South of France is connected by rail with Bordeaux in the 
western part of the country, 
which is the fourth city of 
the Republic. One of the 
two most interesting cities on 
the route is Nimes, with its 
Roman ruins and busy mills. 

It is made up of three hand¬ 
some suburbs and a dirty little 
town, where ten thousand 
looms are constantly at work 
in weaving silk and cotton. 

Among the beautiful remains 
of Roman buildings are the 
Amphitheater, the Maison Car¬ 
rie, of the Corinthian style, 




AMPHITHEATER, NIMES. 

the Temple and Fount' 
ain of Diana, the Great 
Tower, baths, and two 
Roman Gates. The Pont 
du Gard is the fine old 
ruin of an aqueduct, also 
built by the Romans. In 
ancient days Nimes was 
one of the chief cities of 
MAISON CARREE, NIMES. G aul ; it is now princi- 

pally given up to making shawls, handkerchiefs and lace, besides brandy, wines 
and other things, and has scarcely seventy thousand people. Toulouse, further 
west, is much larger, having about as many inhabitants as Washington, the capital of the 
United States, or one hundred and fifty thousand. This, too, is an old city, with a 


































102 


Cities of the World\ 


cathedral, a fine town hall, called the Capitole , and a great many schools, academies and 
museums, besides a large public library. The city is celebrated for duck-liver and 
truffle pies ; its manufactures are woolens, silks and leather, cannon, steam engines and 
other things. It is nearer to Spain than any other large city of France, and so has a 
large trade with the kingdom across the Pyrenees. Toulouse stands near the headwaters 
of the river Garonne, about two hundred miles from its mouth and a hundred and fifty 
miles from Bordeaux. This city lies near the western coast of France, in about the same 
latitude as Bangor, Maine, or St. Paul, Minnesota, which is nearly midway between 
Lyons and Marseilles. It is mostly on the western bank of the Garonne, and in shape 
very much like a broad, old-fashioned lace collar, with meshes of spacious squares made 
by handsome streets and avenues running in every direction, and surrounded by a broad 
and beautiful boulevard. At high tide vessels of a thousand tons can come up from the 
sea into the capacious harbor, where the river expands to a width of two thousand feet. 
The splendid sweep of this water front is one of the sights of Europe, with its fine quays 
and great buildings, from above which an antique spire and great Gothic towers cast 
their shadows over a forest of shipping and one of the most magnificent stone bridges in 
France. The heart of the town is the Place des Quinconces, fronting on the river, with 
two lofty columns, and opening into fine avenues and streets leading in all directions. 
Here are the principal hotels, warehouses and public offices of the city, which are all 
large and attractive-looking buildings. The Grand Theater is particularly noted, with 
its portico of Corinthian columns and beautiful Italian architecture. Adjoining the Place 
beyond is the “Cours of the 30th of July,” a short but very wide avenue connecting 
the main thoroughfares from all parts of the city, and leading to the Jardin des Plantes. 
This is a public garden which also has a botanical garden and large conservatories. 
Near by are picture galleries, a collection of armor and war weapons of all ages, a 
museum of antiquities and cabinets of natural history, showing shells, birds, fossils and 
marbles, which are very valuable and interesting. Bordeaux was a prosperous and 
important town in the days of the Romans in Gaul, who built a great amphitheater 
here, the arches of which are still standing near the Gardens. The northern part is 
new and openly built, a “ sprawling city ” ; beyond the great cross-town thoroughfare, 
south of the Place Quinconces, are old streets, narrow and thickly settled, but among 
which several broad new avenues have been laid out. This is the business part; on the 
quay is the Bourse, with its great glass dome, and beyond, at the head of a magnificent 
promenade leading from the bridge is the ancient Palace Gate, which in olden times was 
the entrance to the Palace, where Louis XI. established the Parliament of Bordeaux. 
This promenade, called the Cours Napoleon, extends to the most notable group of build¬ 
ings in the city, near the south-eastern limits. These include, among others, the Hotel 
de Ville, St. Andres Hospital and the old Cathedral, with its tall Gothic spires, pointed 
portal, beautiful rose window, statues and bas reliefs. Part of the Cathedral of St. 


Nantes, Havre and Rouen . 


103 


Andr£ was built by the English, who, about a century after the Norman conquest, took 
possession of Bordeaux and held it for three hundred years. The brilliant court 
of the Black Prince was held in the palace, and in the cathedral Richard II. of 
England was christened. The great tower, detached from St. Andre’s but near by, is 
the Tour de Pey Berland. It is two hundred feet high. The square buttresses which sup¬ 
port it at the base gradually grow less, and the tower becomes circular at the top, where it 
is crowned by an immense statue of the Virgin and Child. A great deal of the business 



BORDEAUX. 

of the city is connected with its commerce. There are courts, banks, offices and ware¬ 
houses in great numbers ; railways and canals employ many people in the trades of the 
celebrated Bordeaux wines, or claret, corn, fruit and produce of the farms and vineyards 
of Southern France ; the most important manufacture of the town is ship-building ; the 
foreign trade is mainly with the United States, South America and Mexico, Great Britain 
and the French colonies. Nantes, further north, near the coast of the Bay of Biscay, 




















104 


Cities of the World\ 


is on a deep harbor near the mouth of the Loire river. It has nearly ^ne hundred and 
twenty-five thousand people, but, although having but about one-naif the population of 
Bordeaux, it is next to it in importance, and in some parts rivals the beauty of Paris 
itself. Among the most striking buildings are the Cathedral of St. Pierre, with its 
splendid monuments ; the old castle, which was built in 938 and has been the temporary 
residence of nearly all the kings and queens of France since Charles VIII. Nantes 
stands on a noble part of the Loire, where the channel is studded with islands ; many 
bridges span its various branches, and fair, green meadows skirt its shores. The quays 
are pleasant promenades, lined with houses and planted with trees, and the broad Cours 
which extend through the city are bordered with elegant houses, and ornamented with 
statues and several rows of trees. The import and export trade is large and the indus¬ 
tries of the little city are almost as many as those of Birmingham in England. Besides 
the linens, cotton, calicoes and flannels spun here, there is a very different kind of occu¬ 
pation which employs many people in making musical and scientific instruments, and 
still others, in refining sugar and salt, making chemicals, distilling brandy, and in foun¬ 
dries, tanneries and ship-building. The great seaport at the mouth of the Seine is 
Le Havre, or the Harbor, which, next to Marseilles, is the most important commercial 
town in France, being also the port of Paris. The population of Le Havre is scarcely a 
hundred thousand, but nearly one-fourth of the foreign trade of France is centered here. 
It has lines of vessels running to nearly every large port in the world, and railroads to 
all parts of the Republic and to Germany. It has also large manufactories in many 
important articles of trade, and the great shipyards send out the finest vessels of France. 
From the heights on the northern side of Havre, where from the pretty suburbs of villas 
and gardens a fine view of the town and harbor is to be had, the streets are regularly laid 
out in squares, with the Rue de Paris, running north and south, the center of traffic. 
At the head of it stand the Public Gardens and the Hotel de Ville, built in the style of 
the Tuileries, and near the lower end, toward the outer port, is the famous old church 
of Notre Dame, which was built in the sixteenth century. Great basins of water, sur¬ 
rounded by broad quays and overlooked by commercial offices, stretch from the harbor 
into the center of the town. 

Scarcely half way from Havre to Paris, on the north bank of the Seine, stands 
the ancient capital of Normandy, Rouen the most picturesque city of France. The town 
is forever associated with the memory of Joan of Arc, the heroic Maid of Orleans, whom 
the English are said to have burned alive in 1431 in the city square, now called 
Place de la Pucelle. The history of Rouen has been very eventful since the days 
of the Northmen, who made it their capital in 842, and even after the sackings of the 
Huguenot wars and the Revolution, is now more rich in ancient architecture than any 
other city of France. The old ramparts have been made into broad, tree-lined boule¬ 
vards ; some of the new streets are lined with fine, modern stone houses ; but for the 


Rouen and Lille. 


105 

most part Rouen is a city of ill-built but picturesque streets and squares, with tall, 
narrow and quaintly-carved houses, timber-bound and gable-roofed. The unsymmetrical 
old Cathedral of Notre Dame is a grand piece of ancient Gothic architecture, with its 
lofty towers, ornamented chapels and carved statuary. There are fine rose windows in 
the cathedral, memorial figures and tablets, and in the museum of antiquities the heart 
of the Coeur de Lion is preserved, which was originally buried beneath the choir. 
Among the other interesting buildings of Rouen are the Tower of Joan of Arc, where in 



HAVRE. 

the ancient citadel built by Philip Augustus some time in 1200, the soldier-maid was 
imprisoned ; the Church of St. Patricia, with its gorgeous colored windows two hundred 
years old ; the Palais de Justice, a picturesque pile lining three sides of a square ; the 
Belfry is a tower of the fourteenth century, connected by an arched bridge across the 
street with the Hotel de Ville. These stand upon the Grande Rue, with its cluster of 
quaint, interesting houses, close together. The Hotel du Bourgtheroulde is of the 
fifteenth century, and represents the scene on the “ Field of the Cloth of Gold ” in 
reliefs, while its graceful six-sided tower is sculptured with scripture subjects. But the 
















106 Cities of the World. 

most interesting of all these medieval buildings is the Church of St. Ouen, which surpasses 
the cathedral in beauty and size. Although nearly a hundred years passed in the erec¬ 
tion of St. Ouen, the plans were not changed, and one of its greatest charms is that it 
all seems to belong together,—or its harmony , as architects say. The tower is over two 
hundred and fifty feet high, surmounted by an eight-sided, open-work lantern and a 



PALACE OF JUSTICE, ROUEN. 

gallery from which there is a fine view. The portals are adorned with statues and 
reliefs ; above is a magnificent rose window, and still higher an arcade with eleven 
statues, crowned by a pediment bearing a figure of St. Ouen, Archbishop of Rouen. 
Rouen is growing to a large importance in trade now. In manufacturing it stands 
among the foremost cities, with large products in cotton, checked and striped goods and 
cotton yarn and velvets ; in nankeen, dimity, lace, shawls and hosiery, and also in wool 


























































Rouen and Lille . 


107 


fabrics, yarns, blankets and flannels, besides hats and cordage, steel, shot, lead, chem¬ 
icals and paper, and in building ships and machinery. There are about as many people 
in Rouen as in Albany, New York, a hundred and five thousand. The most important 
city in the extreme north of France is Lille, once called L’lsle, or The Island. It is 
fortified and kept as one of the chief defenses of the north, and is named from the castle 
which once stood in the midst of salt marshes, and around which the town grew. Lille 
has a modern appearance of wide streets and imposing squares and houses. The Bourse, 
richly ornamented in the Spanish style ; the five-sided old citadel with its splendid 
equipments in case of need, and the Church of St. Maurice, are all fine and interesting. 
The tall chimneys of numerous mills show the activity of the town, which is chiefly manu¬ 
facturing and twisting flax into the celebrated Lille or Lisle thread, extracting oil from rape 
and poppy seeds, and manufacturing sugar from beet-root. To these industries the neigh¬ 
boring country contributes in raising flax and other products and bringing them ready 
to use into town. Lille has about two hundred thousand inhabitants, making it the fifth 
city of the Republic. The Newcastle of France is St. Etienne. It is a short distance 
from Lyons, and surrounded by coal beds, and has been mined until the streets of the 
town stand upon galleries. Its mills for tempering iron and steel are supplied with 
water from the Furens, a branch of the Loire, upon which St. Etienne is situated, 
always shrouded in smoke. Most of the town is badly built; but it can not even derive 
any beauty from the immense new lime-stone buildings, which are, some of them, six and 
eight stories high, for they are soon tarnished and begrimed from the factories ; there 
are also great quantities of rich and beautiful ribbons, velvets and laces made here for- 
all parts of the world, and firearms, bayonets and all kinds of steel and iron implements. 
In population it is about the size of Nantes. 


GERMANY. 


HE most important kingdom of the German Empire is Prussia, and Berlin, itscapi. 



1 tal, is the seat of the imperial government. The city stands nearly in the center 
of Northern Germany, on a level, sandy plain between the Elbe and the Oder rivers, with 
the smaller streams and lakes of the Havel to the west. The broad, sluggish Spree, flowing 
across it, enters Berlin on the south-east, and, after separating so as to form a long island 
in the center, unites again, and flows out through the north-western quarters. These 
rivers, and the canals they feed, form a system of water-ways in and about Berlin extend¬ 
ing to the Baltic and the North seas, which, with the still more important net-work of 
railroads centering at the capital, makes it a great headquarters for the art and industry 
of western Europe and the natural products of the eastern part of the continent, at 
the same time drawing to it the town manufactures of the Empire, besides petroleum, 
metals and many more of the rich country products. These are for Berlin’s own use 
and for shipment to other markets far and wide, so that the German capital now ranks 
among the most important markets of Europe. It also attracts greatness in art, works 
of science and literature, but even more than these, great men. So many celebrated 
scholars and teachers, and people famous for their powers of mind live here, that it is 
called the world’s Capital of Intelligence. Although more than six centuries old, nearly 
every part of Berlin seems to be as modern as New York. It is about the same size as 
our own metropolis, but with fewer people : the population of Berlin being about one 
million two hundred thousand. This makes it the third city of Europe and the sixth of 
the world. Like most German towns it shows very plainly that it has spread out to its 
present size from the small original settlement in the center. In Berlin the “ old town ” 
is marked by the lowest houses, some of the most extensive buildings, and greatest 
activity and life. Gradually the streets grow longer and the houses higher, till the far 
reaching suburbs stretch up to the hill-sides in regular blocks of six-story dwellings, and 
the tumult of business or social life is gradually lost in districts of great factories or in 
broad, tree-planted streets lined with aristocratic homes. Some of these are plain, others 
magnificent ; but no part dwindles away into tumble-down hovels, dirty sheds or rook¬ 
eries. Berlin is made up of many quarters, called stadte , differing widely, but all thrifty 
and progressive, for this is a city of the present. The people are living for what they 






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IN THE THIERGARTEN, BERLIN. 









































































































I IO 


Cities of the World. 


can do now ; they preserve with care and honor what their fathers have done, but in a 
way to make their monuments and treasures give service, enjoyment or education to the 
living nation. 

Berliners are nearly all Germans ; the capitals of other countries are made up of 
people from everywhere, but in that of Prussia, ninety-nine out of every hundred were 
born in the land,—true Germans, full of life and push, hard working and loving pleasure. 
For this last there is plenty of provision in gardens, promenades, concert halls and theaters. 
Among the most attractive of all the city resorts is the great park called the Thiergarten. 
When Berlin was a smaller city than it is now this lay on the western outskirts ; but now 
it is close to the center and adjacent to the most fashionable part of town. The vast 
pleasure ground is about twice the size of Hyde Parkin London, and nearly three times as 
long as it is wide. It is more than six hundred acres taken out of a natural forest and 
graded with smooth lawns, set with flower beds and beautiful statues. The 
grand old trees still stand in groves and, bordering fine promenades and winding, 
paths, cast their deep shade or moving shadows on many pretty streams and lakes, 
especially in the western end, called the See Park, and around the Rousseau 
Island. This is never so gay as in winter, when the ground is covered 
with snow, and the glassy ice of the lake is crowded with merry skaters. In the 
upper part there is a royal chateau—Bellevue—near the winding Spree, which forms 
the northern boundary of the garden. Some distance east of the chateau, within 
a bold upward curve of the river, lies Konigs-Platz, or King’s Square. This is one of 
the most beautiful places in the city, laid out with large flower beds and fountains. In 
the center stands a great monument in the form of a fluted column. From the terrace 
above the level of the Platz, a circular flight of granite steps leads to the massive, square 
pedestal, where beautiful bronze reliefs tell of many Prussian victories. Above it is an open 
colonnade, or large gallery of columns, running around the base, which is inlaid with 
Venetian mosaics. The column is of yellowish gray sandstone, divided into three tiers, 
with a row of cannon standing in the recesses of the fluting at the base of each. There 
are sixty guns in all, which were captured from Denmark, Austria and France. The 
whole monument is two hundred feet high, with the crowning statue of a colossal figure 
of Borussia, above the sculptured eagles of the capital. This is surrounded by a high 
railing, for many visitors go out upon it to enjoy the fine view of the Thiergarten and the 
city beyond. Above the extensive space of the King’s Square is another, also adorned, 
with fountains, statuary and flower beds, and flanked by lofty buildings ; from 
here the broad Alsten street, planted with double rows of trees, leads to bridges that 
connect with the city beyond. Above the garden and further westward is Moabit, once a 
dangerous quarter, “with the material for a riot always on hand” ; but now you would 
think it contained every thing to prevent a disturbance, with its extensive barracks 
overlooking the great tree-bordered Exercier Platz, or parade ground, at either end r. 


Germany. 111 

its vast prison-houses, built out from one large center like a star ; its penitentiary and 
its criminal court buildings. There are some noted churches in this quarter, too ; but 
for the most part it is made up of factories and mechanics’ homes. The great Borsig 
engine works, the most extensive factories in the city, are here. A hundred and 
sixty locomotives are made in these shops every year. Near by is the Villa Borsig, 
surrounded by beautiful grounds and containing palm houses, filled with fine 
tropical plants and trees, and hot-houses of rare, cultivated flowers. These attractions 
make this part at least of the despised suburb a very desirable place to visit. Looking down 
from the capital of the great monument, on the east side of the Platz, the new Reich- 
stags-Gebaude or parliament house, is seen, which is for the meetings of the body of men 
elected by the people to help the Emperor rule the country. On the other side is a long, 
showy-looking building, called Kroll’s Establishment, or the Casino and Winter Garden. 
This is one of the most brilliant and popular resorts in Berlin, containing concert-hall, 
theater and restaurants. The principal part of the establishment is the hall, which is 
almost four hundred feet long and one hundred feet wide, made to look like a vast 
garden. On every side the walls are covered with plants and flowers growing in pots or 
in vases and festoons. On the floor there are great plants, palm trees and flowery banks, 
green and blooming, and growing beneath the glass roof as luxuriously as in their native 
land. Three bands relieve each other in making a continuous concert of good music, 
which attracts thousands of people. Hundreds of little tables are standing about, around 
which men and women gather in animated groups, chatting to each other over their 
refreshments, listening to the music, or watching the others who are promenading up 
and down. In the evening the place is brilliantly lighted with hundreds of gas jets. It 
is made warm and pleasant in winter, or delightfully cool in summer. Then the great 
pavilions are open and seem almost to be a part of the shady avenues, filled with merry 
promenaders, leading to the Zelten, or tents, along the river. The Zelten is a sort of 
outdoor Kroll’s, lighted through , the trees, where gay groups of people enjoy their 
friends, listen to music, or quietly take an evening of recreation after the day’s work. 

The main entrance to the Thiergarten is through Brandenburg Gate, which stands on 
the eastern boundary not far from the King’s Square, and at the head of the Charlotten- 
burg Road. This broad avenue runs the full length of the park past the imposing new 
Technical School and the famous old Royal Porcelain factory at the further end, and on 
through the scattered western outskirts to the town of Charlottenburg. This is likely to 
soon follow many other places in becoming incorporated with the city. Its chief inter¬ 
est now is connected with the old Royal Palace. A stately avenue of pines from the 
garden leads to the famous Mausoleum built by Frederick William III. as a tomb for his 
beautiful young queen Louise, who died in 1810. After a long and busy life the old 
king was laid by her side; and above them rest the marble statues whose beauty and 
skillful workmanship would have made the sculptor, Christian Rauch, famous if he had 


I 12 


Cities of the World. 


never done any thing else. At the upper end of the town there are several acres inclosed 
in the Winter Garden of the Flora Society, which is another famous and delightful Berlin 
resort for all seasons of the year, where excellent music is heard in the midst of luxurious 
southern trees and rare tropical plants. A canal forms the lower boundary to the See 
Park, and in one place separates it from the Zoological Gardens. This is also an exten¬ 
sive and beautiful park, where people often gather by thousands to hear fine open air con¬ 
certs. 

The Berlin collection of animals kept here is one of the finest in the world, while their 
attractive houses and sheds add very much to the looks of the garden. The Antelope 
House is built in the Arabian style, and the gay colored Elephant House is in the form of 
an Indian pagoda, or temple. This quarter, called the Outer Friedrichstadt, is the most 
elegant in the city. Between the Thiergarten and the canal—which crosses the upper 
portion on its way to the south-east manufacturing district and a distant point of the 
Spree—are the magnificent villas and charming grounds of the wealthy people of the 
capital. Below the canal the broad tree-planted streets are lined with blocks of majestic 
mansions, the large squares are set with fountains and statues and crossed by avenues 
running in every direction. There are few public buildings here but some fine schools 
and colleges. These are to be seen everywhere in German cities ; they are for all ages 
from the “ play school” of the Kindergarten to the philosophical lecture halls of the 
great scholars ; for Prussia has long been proud of the minds of her people and has pro¬ 
vided handsomely for their education and training. Before the last conquest and the form¬ 
ation of the new empire, it was disparagingly said that Berlin was a bare, flat place, made up 
-of schools and barracks. Perhaps it was in a large measure ; but the schools turned out men 
who have taken first rank among the scholars of the world ; and the soldiery has beaten 
Back the foes and made this city of “ magnificent distances” the capital of one of the leading 
nations of the world. The Thiergarten and the Outer Friedrichstadt are separated from 
the more central part of Berlin, called the Inner Town, by the Koniggratzer strasse, which 
is a long handsome boulevard running in rather a south-easterly direction to a large square 
in the lower part of the city, known as the Belle Alliance Platz. This is a large circular place 
where the principal streets of the Friedrichstadt—a quarter directly east of the Outer 
Friedrichstadt—come together. The Platz is very pretty, with its blooming gardens, 
and in the center stands the great Column of Peace, which was raised on the twenty-fifth 
anniversary of the victoriously won peace of 1815. The Column is of granite standing on 
a lofty pedestal and with a marble capital or top , as you would say, upon which is a beautiful 
figure of Victory, by Herr Rauch who made the statues in the Charlottenburg mausoleum. 
.She holds a twig of palm as the emblem of peace, in one hand, and extends the wreath of 
victory toward the city with the other. Four marble groups are at the base of the monu¬ 
ment, representing Prussia, England, the Netherlands and Hanover, the four great powers 
.that took part in the war of 1815. The continuation of Koniggratzer strasse, which skirts 


Germany . i x ^ 

the canal on the south side of the Platz, is reached by a flight of steps, adorned by figures 
in white marble. At the top of the staircase is the sculptured arch of the Halle Gate, 
from which the canal is crossed by a beautiful, broad, granite bridge with large marble 
groups of statuary upon its buttresses. This leads to the Schoneberg Quarter, and the 
large Botanical Gardens, below the Outer Friedrichstadt. The western part of the city 
seems to be unusually rich in lovely parks ; the Botanical Gardens are not only very 
extensive and beautiful, but have many thousand species of classified plants. In the Palm 
House there are graceful southern palms, various kinds of the cactus and other rare 
importations that are wonderful and interesting. Adjoining the Victoria Regia House is 
the new Botanical Museum and Herbarium, with some of the best collections in the 
world. The Tempelhof Quarter toward the south is growing with many new buildings, 
handsome squares and broad streets. There is a fine view of this new part of Berlin 
from the Kreuzberg or Hill of the Cross, near by, which is a sand hill about a hundred 
feet above the city. There is a Gothic obelisk on the summit adorned with statues by 
famous sculptors, which Frederick William III. erected and dedicated to his people. 

Some distance to the south-west is the village of Potsdam, on the Ringbahn, a railway 
which encircles the city and suburbs of Berlin. Here, on the lakes of the Havel river, 
surrounded by fair wooded hills, Frederick the Great built his palace home, which he 
called Sans Souci, or “ Without Care.” The beautiful chateau with its lovely grounds and 
adornments, beside many other palaces and magnificent villas which were put up in this 
vicinity after the example set by the king, make Potsdam one of the most charming and 
interesting places belonging to the German capital. The Potsdam railway has a hand¬ 
some station in the Friedrichstadt near the Koniggratzer strasse. The streets which 
radiate northward from the Belle Alliance Platz are broad, even and very handsome ; 
they are crossed by others which are also large and straight, making the Friedrichstadt 
the most regularly built quarter of Berlin. Years ago this part of town was dull and 
tiresome, but now its blocks are filled with fine stores, places of amusement and important 
offices ; the largest retail trade in the city is done here. The center street, run¬ 
ning from the Peace Column, is the Friedrich strasse, which extends in a straight 
line across the center of the Freidrichstadt into the new northern suburb of the 
Freiarich-Wilhelm-stadt, lying above. This is one of the largest streets in the inner town ; 
with public and private buildings, bright stores, restaurants, cafes and places 
of amusement ; it is full of life and activity, especially near the center, where 
the lofty facades of splendid buildings are unbroken for many blocks. At the cor¬ 
ner of one of the handsome cross streets are the Germania Insurance Company’s offices, 
the high imposing front richly decorated and set with polished granite columns. The 
beautiful place opposite is occupied by A. W. Faber, the famous pencil maker. 
The Leipziger strasse is the most important street in this quarter. From the old 
house of Prussian Deputies near the Spittel Market at one end, to the Potsdam Gate 


114 Cities of the World ’ 

at the other, it is filled with a constant throng of people, intent upon business during 
the day and pleasure in the evening. Among its showy stores, handsome offices, concert 
halls and restaurants are dignified old houses that have looked down upon all the chang¬ 
ing scenes of this “verdant, flowery crescent,” as somebody calls the street, for the last 
hundred years. One of the most interesting buildings to visit is the Government Post 
Office. Its business part is entirely for the use of the postal authorities of the empire ; 
but any one is allowed to visit the Post Office Museum in another part of the building. 
This stands near the corner of the Wilhelm strasse, the third great street running from 
the Belle Alliance Platz. From its stately rows of official mansions, occupying the 
deep lots extending to the Thiergarten, the Wilhelm strasse is often called the Privy 
Councilors’ Quarter. Just within the Koniggratzer strasse, it runs in the same direc¬ 
tion but much further north. It crosses the Spree by the Marschalls Bridge, round 
which are clustered the schools and colleges belonging to the medical department of the 
Berlin University, and on past this “ Latin Quarter ” of the German capital into the 
Freidrich-Wilhelm-stadt. 

At the head of Leipziger strasse is a large eight-sided platz laid out like a park, 
adorned with bronze statues and overlooked by residences and offices of the govern¬ 
ment ; adjoining it is the square of the Potsdam Gate, while into it come broad, 
tree-lined avenues on many sides. Toward the Wilhelm strasse is the Herrenhaus , or 
Upper Chamber of the Prussian parliament; adjoining the extensive buildings of the 
Rcichstags-Gebaude or Hall of the Imperial Diet. These inclose several courts and are 
very long, extending the depth of several blocks between the handsome gardens of the 
adjoining houses. These buildings were hastily put up in 1871, and will not be used 
by the Reichstags after the new ones in King’s Square are finished ; they are not hand¬ 
some enough to be very interesting except as the place where that important power 
in the German empire, the Reichstags, holds its meetings. 

Below the vast block occupied by the houses of the government, upon a new street leading 
to the Koniggratzer strasse is the German Industrial Museum, built in massive stories of 
hewn stone, ornamented with mosaics and reliefs in terracotta, and adorned with statuary 
upon the staircase leading to the doorway. The apartments are in groups, around a large 
court in the center, which is encircled by slender pillars of a rock very much like granite, 
called syenite ; above this colonnade are two rows of arcades, the upper one crowned by 
a beautiful sculptured frieze, colored like majolica. The collections of this Museum are 
very interesting articles of all ages and from many countries. Here are ancient chairs and 
other pieces of furniture, ivory carvings, perforated leather ; Chinese and Japanese lacquer 
work, mosaics and things made of plaited straw, of wood, paper, hammered iron ; vases and 
plates of rare majolica ; earthenware, pottery and porcelain, gold and silver ware, precious 
stones, woven goods, embroideries and many other curious and beautiful things that 
belong to an exhibition of the world’s progress in industrial art. There is a large school 



THE SCHLOSS 






































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































116 Cities of the World. 

connected with the Museum and a fine library. There is another important Museum in 
the corner of the Koniggratzer strasse, and near by is the Ascanischer Platz, and the 
finest railway station in Berlin. It is very large and beautifully decorated. The starting 
pavilion of this Anhalt Station is the largest on the Continent. There are other grand 
or interesting places all about here, and not far above the line of palaces on the east side 
of the Wilhelm strasse is broken by the open space of the Wilhelms Platz, adorned 
with flower-beds and bronze statues of six heroes of the Three Silesian Wars of 
Frederick the Great. The square is overlooked and surrounded by grand public and 
private buildings of Prussian government officers and foreign embassies, which also ex¬ 
tend, with their variously decorated fagades and handsome gardens to the great avenue 
and true center of the city, Unter den Linden. This most famous street in Prussia is 
scarcely a mile long, running from the King’s Palace in the center of the island made by 
the Spree, to the principal entrance to the Thiergarten, the Brandenburg Gate. From 
one end to the other it is just two hundred feet wide and planted with four rows of lime 
trees—interspersed with chestnuts—from which it is called Unter den Linden, or under 
the limes. Brandenburg Thor was the most important of Berlin’s nineteen gates, when 
the city was surrounded by walls. It is about a century old, and associated with many 
great events in Prussian history. On the top stands a great car of victory, drawn by 
four horses abreast, which the French carried to Paris in 1807 ; but, the successes seven 
years later restored. This quadriga is made of copper, but the Gate itself is 
of sandstone and built to imitate the famous Propylaea, which in ancient days 
stood upon the Athenian Acropolis. The center passage is reserved for the royal car¬ 
riage ; by rows of massive Doric columns, nearly fifty feet high, it is separated from a gate¬ 
way on either side. The entire Gate is a little less than a hundred feet high, and more 
than two hundred feet broad. Two wings like Grecian temples adjoin the Gate on each 
side ; one is for telegraph and pneumatic tube offices ; and the other for the use of the 
soldiery or guards stationed here. Outside there are handsome open colonnades for 
foot passengers. 

Within is the Pariser Platz, a square broader than the Linden and overlooked by 
handsome lofty buildings. The new French Embassy is on the north side, and opposite 
is the Officers’ Casino and two grand palaces, one of which was Prince Bliicher’s. 
Although this is now a private residence, to the German people it is forever associated 
with “ Marshal Forwards,” whose great generalship and swift marches won the victory 
over France in 1814, from which the Square of Paris is named. Here begin the two 
lines of noble buildings which extend the length of the Linden, unbroken. Handsome 
palaces, spacious hotels and attractive shops, theaters, restaurants and caf£s on both 
sides of the way, make this the gayest, the busiest and the most interesting part of the 
great city. It is a never ending picture of the daily life of Berliners, with carriages of 
every description rolling along the drive, officers on horseback and equestrians out for 


Germany . 


ii 7 

pleasure, idling or cantering through the bridle paths, while the sidewalks are thronged 
with promenaders of every class. There are a great many fine galleries in the city ; one 
of which is in Count Redern’s palace, the Florentine building adjoining the Pariser 
Platz. It is open every day, and any one is admitted who has made “previous applica¬ 
tion.” On the corner of Wilhelm strasse is the great Hotel Royal, where the nobility and 
diplomats of the empire stay while they are in Berlin. On the other side is the Aquarium, 
a fairy-land of grottoes, little lakes, and beautiful plants, and containing fresh and 
salt water fish, amphibious animals, apes, birds, and many other things that boys and 
girls love to see. All along here are rich and imposing buildings of the government 
departments, interspersed with brilliant stores, and gay cafes, which have no equal in any 
part of the city, and the Kaisergallcrie , or passage running to the next street 
below, is said to be the handsomest and busiest arcade in Europe. The lower entrance 
is on a corner of the Friedrich strasse, which crosses the Linden in about the center of 
the long lines of trees, and is another great artery pouring life and activity into the 
beautiful street. On one of the corners is the Cafe Bauer, which any Berliner will tell 
you is the handsomest, the best and most visited of any in town. Its walls are painted 
by great artists, its beautiful fittings are in excellent taste, and its lofty mirrors reflect a 
constant throng of brilliant, fashionable people. Beyond the Linden, the Friedrich 
strasse enters the quarter called the Doroth£en stadt, which contains most of the great 
hotels, the fashionable restaurants, clubs, large banking houses, important schools, lodges, 
and churches. In the upper part near the bank of the river is the Central Hotel, the 
most famous in the city, the Fifth Avenue or Astor House of Berlin. It is an immense 
establishment containing more than four hundred rooms, celebrated for good entertain¬ 
ment and a most attractive winter garden. Beyond the Friedrich strasse the Linden is 
crossed by Charlotten street. Here the buying and selling life of the Linden ends and 
a vast group of massive and splendid buildings of a different kind begins. Instead of 
stores it is a grand vision of architecture, sculpture, color, and design, to which is 
added at midday the greater charm of military music from the Band of the Royal 
Guards. On the left rises the vast Academy, with a great clock above the gate, which 
always tells the correct time. This massive building, devoted to the advancement of arts 
and sciences in Germany, is the seat of one of the famous academies of the world, that 
of Paris alone being more important and celebrated. 

Behind the Academy and extending toward the river there are a great many schools 
and institutes, to which students and teachers come from all parts of Germany ; but 
the center of student life in Berlin is the University. The main building stands just 
beyond the Academy, overlooking the Opera House Square, which is a continuation of 
the Linden. Next to her armies the pride of Germany is her great universities. There 
are twenty-one of them in all, large and noble institutions that are known all over the 
world. The University of Berlin is next to the youngest and also next to the largest. It 


118 Cities of the World. 

has two hundred professors and twelve times as many students coming from every part of 
the globe. Behind the buildings is a “ campus,” or “ green,” called the Chestnut Grove, a 
large park, overlooked on all sides by fine buildings, most of which are in some way con¬ 
nected with the Academy or University ; a smaller square adjoining, but fronting on 
the Linden, is included in the name of the Grove, but belongs to the House of the Royal 
Guard. This was built by the great architect Schinkel in 1818, after what is called the 
Doric style, in the form of a fortified gate, guarded by three large cannon taken in war. 
Between the Guard House and the river rise the beautiful sculptured walls of the 
Arsenal. It was built during about twenty years in the last part of the seventeenth and 
the earlier years of the eighteenth centuries, under Frederick I. Each of the sides of the 
great square structure are nearly three hundred feet long, and inclose a large open court 
or quadrangle in the center. Over the principal portal is a bust of King Frederick. 
Opposite the vestibule groups of cannon adorned with flags, both captured from the 
French in the war-time of ’71, guard the entrance to the glass roofed court, from the back 
of which two flights of stairs go up to the Hall of Fame. This has three sections or 
rooms, adorned with historical frescoes, statues of Prussia’s monarchs and busts of its 
great men in military life. In another part of the Arsenal there is a fine display of Prussian 
firearms, besides a large and almost complete collection of all the varieties of firearms ever 
used. Many of the foreign pieces are spoils of war. In the room to the west of the entrance 
are implements used in engineering, models of old French fortresses, brought from 
Paris in 1814, and the keys of several real ones that the Prussians captured ; among other 
interesting war things are some historical pictures ; the flags draping the pillars also 
came from Paris in 1814. On the upper floor is a large collection of ancient, medieval 
and modern weapons. The buildings on the lower side of this platz are even more 
extensive and magnificent than those above, while between them stands the chief monu¬ 
ment of the city, Rauch’s bronze statue of Frederick the Great on horseback. It occu¬ 
pies a space in the center of the broad platz between the Academy and the Palace of 
Emperor William. So, the center of Berlin life and the most beautiful street in Germany 
begins at a triumphal arch crowned with a car of victory, and ends at the feet of the great 
victor who raised Prussia from a petty kingdom to one of the five principal powers of 
Europe. 

The people love this statue of “Old Fritz,” raised by their later sovereigns,Frederick 
William III., and his son Frederick William IV. ; and they have reason to be proud of its 
workmanship in the massive grandeur of the rider and his horse, and the finish of the 
smaller parts of the work. The groups of life-like sculptures surrounding the pedestal 
tell the story of the king’s life, his boyhood, education, the great achievements of his 
manhood, and represent his chief officers and other illustrious men of the time. 

The Palace of Emperor William, opposite the Academy, extends through the block ; it 
is lofty and handsome outside, and within contains a suite of apartments sumptuously 



THE EMPEROR’S PALACE, BERLIN 














































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































120 


Cities of the World. 


fitted up for the emperor, an immense reception room over two hundred feet long, and 
a summer and winter garden. The emperor’s apartments are on the ground floor 
facing the east. Adjoining is the Royal Library, which was built over a hundred years 
ago, in imitation of the Royal Winter Riding School at Vienna. Sarcastically it is 
likened to a great chest of drawers, but it is really a very fine looking building with 
elaborate ornaments after what is called the Rococo style. On the ground floor is the 
reading-room and the collection of maps ; and above are some rare manuscripts of 
Luther and Melanchthon, Gutenberg’s Bible on parchment, over thirty volumes of por¬ 
traits and autographs of celebrated people, Chinese books, a small eight-sided Koran, and 
many other ancient, valuable books and papers, which, with the other contents of the 
Library, make nine hundred thousand volumes and fifteen thousand manuscripts. The 
king’s residence and the Royal Library face the Opera House with the long and statue- 
adorned Opera Platz, extending the full depth of the block between. The Opera House 
with its colonnaded portico, is a fine large structure built about fifty years ago, but copied 
after and taking the place of the seventeenth-century building which was burned. The 
interior is large and handsomely decorated with oil paintings framed in gold on the 
ceilings, and seats for eighteen hundred people. The partitions between the boxes are 
only a foot high, so that the beautiful dresses and jewels worn by the ladies are very 
elegant under the brilliant light of the massive bronze chandelier, and the many smaller 
lights in the vast auditorium. This is the first theater in Berlin, where good operas and 
the most celebrated dramas are given, besides the fine symphony concerts regularly held 
once in two weeks during the winter in the Concert Room. At the back of the Opera 
House is the Roman Catholic Church of St. Hedwig, built about a hundred and fifty 
years ago and copied from the Pantheon at Rome. A short distance to the south-west¬ 
ward is the extensive Gensdarmen Markt , or Military Square, which is said to 
have the most effective group of buildings in Berlin. The large square is surrounded 
by broad streets, all of them handsomer than Broadway in New York, and faced by 
several grand old private mansions of the last century. The Market takes up three 
large squares in about the center of the eastern part of the Friedrichstadt; it is situated 
two blocks below the Linden and two above the Leipziger strasse. The center 
is called the Schiller Platz, from a marble statue of the poet Schiller on a magnificent 
pedestal in front of the principal fagade of the Schauspielhaus , or Royal Theater. 
This is a large, handsome building in the Grecian style, and several stories high, 
with a grand entrance below the fine Ionic portico, with its magnificent, broad 
flight of steps opposite the statue. On the sides of the staircase there are 
bronze groups of genii riding on a panther and a lion. Above the portico the Children 
of Niobe are sculptured in sandstone, while still higher, the principal part of the build¬ 
ing is crowned with a bronze group of Apollo in a chariot drawn by two griffins, above a 
pediment with two large figures of muses. On the other side a Pegasus in copper looks 


Germany. 


I 2 I 


toward the west from the roof of the theater, while on both the northern and the south¬ 
ern sides there are pediments with scenes in relief which are considered the finest work 
ever done by the great artist Frederick Tieck. The Schauspielhaus itself was designed 
by Schinkel, who has many famous works in the German capital. His best interior is 
the Concert Hall of this theater, which is a beautiful shape, adorned with paintings and 
sculptures. It holds twelve hundred people, and is entirely separate from the theater 
auditorium, in which fifteen hundred people may gather comfortably. 

In the lower portion of the Market stands the odd-shaped, five-sided New Church, or 
German Cathedral, with handsome high-domed towers separate from the main building. 
Above the theater is the old French Church, built in the early part of the last century. 
Eastward from the Market lie the narrow and irregular streets of the upper part of the 
quarter of New Kolln on the Water ; here are fine modern business houses and great throngs 
of lively people, although it is one of the very oldest parts of the city. One of the first 
things you would notice here is the noble looking and extensive Imperial German Bank, 
it is so gay with its mixture of sandstone and brick, handsomely adorned with sculptures. 
The inside, too, is very richly and tastefully decorated. Above the Bank stands the 
lofty Venetian fagade of the Central Telegraph office, the headquarters of a splendid 
system of quick communication, which is a necessity to the active Berliners. It is not 
alone in the newness and the bustle of Berlin that it is like the great cities of the 
United States, but in the force and energy of the people to whom “ time is money,” and 
in all matters of business as little to be wasted ; so the telegraph wires, which, besides 
connecting with far-away places, are very much used to send messages from one part of 
the city to another. Without a moment’s delay, for about seven cents, the clerks will 
send twenty words to any of the twenty stations of Berlin; and from there it will be 
delivered to whatever address is given, in a surprisingly short time. Near the Telegraph 
Office and the Bank is the Old Mint, which is newer than many finer buildings of the 
city. This has been dismantled of its chief beauty, the sandstone frieze representing the 
process of obtaining and treating the metals for the fine New Mint, which occupies a large 
square, opposite the Werder Church. 

On the east the Mint overlooks the water, and on the north it faces the large, square 
building of the Bau Academy or Academy of Architecture, which accommodates seven 
hundred students, and contains a museum of several interesting collections. On the 
ground floor is the Beuth-Schinkel Museum, with a large collection of drawings and 
designs of buildings and plans which were made by Schinkel for the finest of his 
works. There are also exhibits of models of architecture, and some engravings be¬ 
queathed by Beuth, who did a great deal to help Prussia in industrial pursuits. The 
museum building itself was designed by Schinkel, and, an architect would tell you, is a 
masterly work, in the style of the middle ages, finished with an ornamentation of brick 
and terra-cotta copied from Greek patterns. The staircase is the handsomest part of 


122 


Cities of the World. 


the interior, the remainder being devoted to school and exhibition rooms. The long, 
triangular-shaped platz along the river bank above the Academy is named after the great 
architect, and has a fine bronze statue of him in the center, between those of Beuth and 
Thaer. It is a gay nook of the capital here, among the picturesque buildings of the 
Werder market, and through the arched street leading to the Linden, between the 
Palace of the Crown Princess on the left and the grand Palace of the Crown Prince 
on the right, whose sculptured fagade, set with long tiers of shining windows, stands 
opposite the Arsenal. From the platz adjoining the Linden the Spree is crossed by the 
beautiful Schloss-Briicke or Palace Bridge, leading to the great open space in front of the 
Schloss or Royal Palace, beyond which the eastern arm of the river is crossed by a 
smaller bridge leading to the “ old town ” of Berlin, so that there is one unbroken 
thoroughfare all the way across the center of the city. The Schloss-Briicke is 
large and very broad, with handsome parapets and immense groups of marble sculptures, 
representing the life of a warrior from the days of boyhood, when he is learning about 
the heroes of history, to the glorious end of his life on earth. Above the Palace extends 
the old Lustgarten , once the Palace Pleasure Garden ; now an immense tree-planted 
public park with plain, regular walks and a great statue of Frederick William III. in the 
center. Toward the east stands the old Cathedral, which has some monuments and 
tombs of the early electors, and the burial vaults of the royal family beneath, but other¬ 
wise is about the least interesting thing on the island. An avenue through the center 
of the Lustgarten leads directly to the beautiful Greek building of the Old Museum, in 
front of which is a huge basin hewn out of a solid block of granite weighing seven 
hundred and fifty tons. The long building overlooks the Lustgarten from the colonnaded 
portico, extending all the way across the building, and reached by abroad flight of steps 
on which are placed great pieces of statuary in bronze, representing an Amazon on horse¬ 
back defending herself against a tiger, and a battle between lions. Both of these 
are widely known as the Amazon, by Kiss, and the Lion Slayer, by Albert Wolff. 
The central part of the building rises above the rest, and bears at the four cor¬ 
ners other colossal groups in bronze. Handsome bronze doors open from the por¬ 
tico into the spacious vestibule, which contains a marble statue of Schinkel, the 
designer of the Museum, said to be the finest Greek building in the city ; and the large 
and beautiful frescoes which adorn the lofty walls ; a still finer statue of Rauch is 
here, and of several other worthies. The frescoes are upon a great many different sub¬ 
jects and are very beautiful and instructive. From each side at the end of the vestibule 
a double staircase leads to the upper vestibule, where there are more Schinkel frescoes 
and a fine view of the Lustgarten, the Schloss and its surroundings from the open 
spaces between the great columns. A doorway opposite leads to the gallery 
which runs around the glass-covered rotunda; the gallery is supported by 
columns, between which are eighteen ancient statues on the ground floor. To the right 





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124 


Cities of the World. 


and the left is a large square court. The upper walls of the rotunda are hung with the 
celebrated tapestries woven at Brussels for Henry VIII. of England from designs by 
Raphael. Passing from one part of the Museum to another one feels that the rooms 
are very pleasantly arranged, and on a simple plan. The contents of the 
Museum are carefully divided or classified and arranged according to the age of 
the different pieces. Below the first floor is a basement or ground floor containing the 
library used by those who are in charge of the Museum, and the Cabinet of Coins. 
There are many thousand ancient pieces of money, almost half of which are rare speci¬ 
mens of the Greek and Roman ; the other large cases are filled with Oriental coins ; those 
in use during the Middle Ages, and a fine collection of German coins and medals. 
The second floor is a vast picture gallery; a series of cabinets running around 
the entire building contains the German national collection of ancient paintings, these, 
too, arranged in classes according to the age of the pictures. All the important schools 
of European paintings are represented, in which among a host of others are the famous 
names of the Van Eyck brothers of the old Netherlandish school, Giotto of the early 
Italian painters, and Raphael of the golden time in Italian art, a few portraits by Titian 
of the Venetian school, and Albrecht Diirer of the early German painters, a small 
choice collection from the Flemish master, Paul Rubens, and the school he founded, 
and a number of good works by Rembrandt of the Dutch school. The fame of the 
Berlin Gallery rests more upon the completeness of its collection in representing the 
history of painting than on any great single pieces ; but wherever its collectors are 
able to secure masterpieces of any school, they do so, and in this way it is an exhi¬ 
bition of the growth of the beautiful art, containing some wonderful works 
of the highest class. Adjoining the northern side of the Old Museum is a 
staircase and passage leading to the plain, stately building, the New Museum, 
which, looking like a high Grecian Temple, stands at- right angles to the older 
edifice. 

The arrangements and decorations of the interior of the New Museum are the 
handsomest of any in Berlin. The magnificent paintings on the staircase walls 
and other adornments of the building almost put the collections in the 
shade. The general plan of the rooms, halls and courts is much like that of the 
other museum, the great staircase taking the place of the rotunda with the 
courts on either side. The easterly corners of the building contain a rotunda 
at one end and cupola at the other, from which last is the passage to the Old Museum. 
These collections, like the others, are in representation of the history of art. On the 
ground floor are tiles, pieces of sculpture, tombs, monuments, mummies, gems, jewelry 
and other rare and valuable antiquities of Egypt, sculptures and other remains of the lost 
Assyrian nation, and sculptures of the first years of the Christian Era. The first floor is 
all taken up with a large collection of casts, and on the top floor is one of the largest 


Germany . 


125 


and finest collections of engravings in Europe, a large cabinet of rare and artistic 
manuscripts, and the rooms of the Antiquarium. This, to the visitor who is not an 
artist, is perhaps the most interesting part of the New Museum. It is made up of 
beautiful and very old bronze toilet-caskets, metal mirrors, weapons, household 
articles, showing what the Greeks and Romans used to keep house with ; and some 
of the terra-cotta reliefs with which they ornamented their buildings, at the same time 
recording their history. Besides these there are here a great many handsome vases and 
cameos, intaglios, other gems and precious metals. A glass cabinet in the center holds 
the famous silver treasure of Roman plate which was made in the time of Augustus. 
(You remember this was the reign in which Christ was born.) The Berlin collection of 
modern paintings, which numbers about five hundred, is in the elegant new building, 
which stands to the east of the New Museum. The National Gallery of paintings and 
sculptures, cartoons and drawings is in the form of a very long and broad Corinthian tem¬ 
ple. It stands in a square, beautifully laid out with flowerbeds, fountain and statues, and 
inclosed by a Doric colonnade. Above the Gallery and the New Museum, the island 
comes to a point, and the river—reunited—flows to the westward. On the opposite 
bank, upon the turn of the eastern branch, the extensive old garden of the royal 
chateau of Monbijou lies along the shore. The long, irregular building of 
the chateau is made up of a villa, built for a German countess almost two hun¬ 
dred years ago, and the additions, which were made before this century, after the 
place became Schloss Monbijou and the residence of the queen of Frederick William I. 
It is now mainly used for what is called the Hohenzollern Museum , which is a collection 
of articles that have belonged to the rulers of Prussia from the time of the Great Elector 
to the present day. They are arranged in groups; the portraits of a certain monarch’s 
family with articles they used, clothes they wore, beautiful things they owned and some¬ 
times the work of their hands, are all placed together with portraits and statues of the 
noted people of that time. In the room of Frederick William II. are portraits of the 
king’s generals, the orders of Napoleon, captured at Waterloo, and also the orders worn 
by General Blticher. The most interesting rooms of all contain reminiscences of 
Frederick the Great, in which are the clothes he wore from the time he was a child till 
the time of his death, and many other belongings of the great hero. Above Monbijou 
the streets extend irregularly in many directions ; but they are broad, and often lead 
into handsome open squares. From one, near by, is the Sophien Kirche, with its elegant 
rococo spire, rising opposite the large Gothic hospital of St. Hedwig ; adjoining is the 
interesting old Jewish cemetery, while further to the north-west is the fine new Synagogue, 
with its gilded dome and Oriental appearance, in the combination of granite and sand¬ 
stone trimmings upon the structure of brick. This is a very handsome, attractive 
building. There are three doors of bronze, separated by columns of green granite, 
within which the vestibule leads to the Small Synagogue, for the minor ceremonies of 


126 


Cities of the World. 


the Jewish religion, while the apartment of the Principal Synagogue is beyond. This 
magnificent long room and its curious vaulted ceiling with iron tie-beams and cramps, 
supported by slender iron columns, is most gorgeously decorated, especially in the apse, 
which is very beautiful at dusk, when the softened evening light falls through the cupolas 
and the stained glass windows. In the vicinity of the Synagogue there are several other 
Jewish buildings, altogether the finest collection of religious edifices in Berlin. Here, 
too, the largest part of the Hebrew people of the capital live, forming quite an extensive 
Jewish quarter. They are important citizens, wealthy, intelligent and holding a high 
position in society. Their children are carefully educated, and they themselves attract 
to their homes, their small companies and receptions, some of the finest and most 
agreeable among all the people of the capital. 

When Berlin was first known in history it was a small city of two parts; 
the most easterly was separated by the right arm of the Spree from a 
smaller town called Kolln, which lay on the lower part of the island. In 
1451 the Elector Frederick II. built a castle on the river bank, above Kolln 
and facing Berlin, to which, nearly a hundred years later, Joachim II. added a 
wing. He placed it at right-angles with the original building, little thinking 
that the other monarchs who came after him would, in turn, add to this wing 
till it should extend all the way across the island and form the main part of the 
royal palace of a great empire. With many additions and alterations, it now incloses 
two large square courts, while the old palace of Frederick is but one small suite of apart¬ 
ments at one side. Altogether the Schloss is an imposing and massive pile, which the 
German rulers have never quite finished altering and embellishing ; so it has the appear¬ 
ance of being neither old nor new. The ornamentation on the northern faqade is light and 
elegant; the portal on the west is in imitation of the great triumphal arch of Septimius 
Severus of ancient Rome, 1 and the high walls that look toward ancient Kolln are like 
some grim and severe monument, with scarcely any attempt at ornamentation. 

The handsomest of the inclosed courts is the inner court; it is surrounded by arcades 
on three sides, separated from the outer courts by a block of sixteenth century buildings, 
which have been ornamented by modern architects. There are about six hundred apart¬ 
ments in the building. In the time of Frederick the Great, who lived during the larger 
part of the seventeenth century, almost all the royal family made their homes in the Schloss ; 
it then held all the royal collections, and was the seat of several government officials. 
But in later days the growth of the nation, and of the desires of the monarchs, have 
caused other buildings to be raised for the residence of the emperor and the officers and 
the meetings of the State. The second story, overlooking the Werder Bridge, Prince 
Frederick Charles occupies, and on the ground floor on the south Prince Leopold lives ; 

1 See chapter on Rome of “ Great Cities of the Ancient World.” 




CAFE SCENE, BERLIN. 



















































































































































































































128 


Cities of the World. 


but the other parts of the palace are now unused except as reception rooms for royal 
guests and for the dwellings of a few officials. One after another stately corridors stretch 
on to ante-chambers leading to grand halls lined with portraits of the Prussian royalty 
and gorgeous rooms furnished as when they were in use. Here are the apartments where 
kings and queens have lived and died. Frederick the Great was born in this palace; and 
in one of the rooms is the handsomely decorated Bridal Chamber, still used for royal mar¬ 
riages. The most richly ornamented of all these gorgeous rococo reception halls is the Ritter 
Saal or Old Throne Room. Above the side doors are groups representing the four quarters 
of the globe ; another large and beautiful carving is over the central door, where there 
is also a gallery which used to be of solid silver, to correspond with the massive thrones ; 
above the thrones is a great shield of the same metal, which the town of Berlin pre¬ 
sented to Frederick William IV. The massive silver column in front of the window is 
another gift. It was made to the present emperor in 1867 by the army and navy officers, 
on the sixtieth anniversary of his admission to the military service. The palace chapel 
is a high, eight-sided building, seventy-five feet across one way and a trifle longer the 
other. This odd shaped little sanctuary is like Aladdin’s cave, with its frescoes on gilded 
walls, its linings and pavements of marbles in different colors, the four yellow Egyptian 
marble columns of the altar, and the pure white pulpit and candelabra of Carrara 
marble. 

The Schloss Platz, or the Square, below the Palace, is a large open space, extending 
across the island from the Werder Bridge to the old Bridge of the Electors, over the 
eastern stream, and connecting Alt Kolln , as the Berliners say, or Old Kolln, with Alt 
Berlin. The lower part of the island broadens somewhat till it is almost square ; it is 
crossed in both directions by many streets. In about the center is the Church of St. 
Peter, which is built in the Gothic style and has a slender, graceful spire that is the 
highest in Berlin. Almost adjoining on the east is the old Kolln Fish Market, where the 
Kolln Rathhaus, or Town Hall stands, with its unfinished tower and museum of ancient 
articles in flint, bronze and iron from the lake dwellings and early settlements ; there are 
also cabinets of weapons, armor, ancient instruments of torture, old articles of church 
use and furniture, coins and medals, and antique pieces of porcelain, glass, ornaments, 
clothing and other things. Just below the Royal Mills on the river here is the Miihlen- 
damm, or mill-dam bridge, lined with an ancient colonnade, occupied by the shops and 
offices of the small Jewish dealers. The Royal stables are above, and contain perhaps 
the best horses to be seen in the capital ; for Berlin makes no boast of fine teams ; the 
best display it can make, royal equipages and all, is very poor compared to the hand¬ 
some spans and gorgeous carriages that we see in our own land. The stables are near 
the Schloss Platz, the great thoroughfare connecting “thenew and the old, the elegant 
and the fashionable, with the busy and toiling Berlin.” The Bridge of the Elector is the 
void Lange Bridge, renamed from the fine bronze horse-back statue of Frederick William, 


Germany. 129 

the Great Elector, which was placed here in 1703 ; this grand majestic figure, with 
four slaves round the pedestal, stands between the quiet repose of the museum island and 
the continual activity of the Old Town ; it is at the head of the narrow winding pass of 
King Street with its high houses and vast blocks of buildings, leading into the busiest 
quarter of the whole city, where “ from morning till night there is no moment of 
quiet or rest from the unceasing thrQng and rattle of wheels.” The low, four-wheeled 
drosky, or cab, dashes over the bridge with a merchant or a humble marketer, lumbers up 
King Street amidst the crowded throng of people and vehicles, past the great post-office, 
the vast block covered by the Berlin Town Hall, and many other buildings, to the rail¬ 
way station beyond, in Alexander Platz, or out into the suburbs of Stradlau or Konig- 
stadt above with its pretty Frederick’s Park, perhaps ; or turning into some side street, 
may set down its occupant in the front of store or office or dwelling, for the cheap drosky 
with its good-natured driver, called schwager —brother-in-law—carries all sorts of 
people to all sorts of places ; and the Old Town is full of both. From here come 
wholesale quantities to supply all the material wants of the city ; it is the “ down town ” 
of New York, or the “ City ” of London, densely peopled and crowded with business. 
Below the Konigs strasse, which runs through the center of Old Berlin toward the north¬ 
east and ends in the Alexander Platz,—below this crowded thoroughfare is a very closely 
built up and thickly settled quarter, bounded on the east by broad promenades, laid out 
over the ancient ramparts. In this old quarter are many of the important and most-used 
public buildings of the city. At the head of the Miihlendamm is the Molken Markt, the 
oldest square in the city, in front of the principal police court and the criminal court 
houses, which form a large group of ancient-looking buildings with some of the wings 
extending along the river. Above is the oldest church in Berlin, St. Nicholas, 
with its two lofty towers, and picturesque interior. In another respect than age this is 
also a remarkable building ; every kind of artistic style in architecture since the end of 
the Gothic period, which was about the sixteenth century, is here represented, some¬ 
times by work of great value and beauty. Numbers of tablets, screens, and some famous 
tombs are in this old church, which has seen Berlin grow to its present size and import¬ 
ance from a little town of the thirteenth century before it was united with Kolln, 
across the river. 

Near by is another ancient building—the Kurfiirsten haus, or House of the Electors, 
the great princes, who used to elect the emperor or the king in the earlier days of the 
first German empire. 

To the east of this is an imposing square of brick buildings with granite facings and 
terra cotta ornamentation, occupying a large space fronting on the King Street. This 
is the Berlin Rathhaus, or Town Hall, and is entered by the main portal under the lofty 
clock tower, which is always illuminated after dark, and tells the time, day and night, 
over a large part of the city. 


130 


Cities of the World. 


One very interesting part of the outside of this great building is the set of reliefs on 
the front of the balcony, representing important scenes in old and new Berlin. 

Entering the Rathhaus one passes the bronze statues of Emperor William and 
Elector Frederick I. ; beyond, the main staircase leads to the star-vaulted passage with 
beautiful stained glass windows bearing the arms of eighty-four Prussian towns. The 
Library is on the right, with vaulted ceilings and paintings on the walls. On the book¬ 
case doors are medallion portraits of celebrated men, connected with the books within. 
Passing through the small reading room, with ceiling paintings of the German legends 
and busts of Bismarck and Moltke, the handsome Fest-saal is reached. This beautiful 
room is too interesting to pass through quickly. Visitors “ break their necks,” they say, 
before they can take their eyes from the fine coffered ceilings, with their sunken panels, 
bearing pictures by a celebrated artist. From the roof hang massive candelabra, while 
the doors are of oak richly carved. Beside the statues in the Saal, there is the great 
picture of the Berlin Congress of European powers to settle the “ Eastern question,” which 
was held in the residence of the Chancellor of the Empire on the Wilhelm strasse, from 
the 13th of June to July 13, 1878. 

Among the most important places in the Old Town is the extensive Central Post 
Office, which is the head of a postal system as prompt and sure and far-reaching in its 
way as the telegraph, I told you about, is in a similar kind of usefulness. In the upper 
part of Alt Berlin is the old “ New Market ” in which stands the second parish church 
of the ancient town. It is five or six centuries old, with a very peculiar Gothic spire 
about three hundred feet high. 

Among the many streets running in all directions from here some lead 

to the river and the imposing Borse or Exchange, opposite the cathedral on the 

island. Berliners point this out as their first modern building made of stone instead 
of brick. The main front overlooks the river with a double colonnade ; a fine large 
carved group in sandstone is above in the center, and smaller ones with other statuary 
on the wings. The Great Hall is the largest in Berlin ; it is lined with an imitation 
of marble and divided by arcades into the money department and the corn exchange. 
The gallery, which is above the hall, is often filled with visitors, watching the busy 
crowds below, where more than three thousand people meet every day. From every 
quarter of the inner town there are many streets leading directly to the more openly 
built suburbs, whose streets are broader and squares are planted with trees and flower 

beds; the dwellings are nearly all vast apartment houses, built of brick, plas¬ 

tered or stuccoed outside. Their balconied fronts are like hanging gardens in summer, 
filled with flowers from ground to roof: All the rented houses in Berlin are now-a-days 
built in flats. They are' to be seen in almost all the newer parts of the city. They are 
immense structures, many stories high, and extending the entire depth of the block. 
The social standing of the family is gauged by the location of their flat. The poor class 



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J 32 


Cities of the World. 


and often the low class live below ground in what are called the sunken floors. It is 
said that one-tenth of the population of the capital lives in this way below the surface of 
the ground. Certainly this is where the dens of wickedness are always found ; and many 
a counterfeiters’ cellar and thieves’ resort of Berlin is in full blast in some sunken floor, 
so carefully concealed that none but the keen, watchful eyes of the trained police and 
detectives ever spy it out. But there are others, respectable people, who are con¬ 
tent or compelled to take a modest seat on the social ladder of Berlin, who live year after 
year in the cellar of vast apartment houses under the same roof with people who are 
“respectable,” “quite proper,” “desirable,” and “ very much sought,” on the various 
floors above them. Those who occupy rear rooms do not stand so well as those who 
have front rooms ; the basement, or ground floor, and the first, second, and third floors, 
even the fourth sometimes are good apartments : “ but the fifth and sixth fall in the social 
scale as they rise into the fresh pure air.” 

The Luisenstadt, another new quarter, lies below the island, and occupies the 
southern part of the city, below the Wall strasse, which runs in the same direction as 
the lower part of the island, just below the left arm of the river. The Luisenstadt, with 
all its thrift, its streets lined with lofty buildings and filled with large numbers of people, 
has sprung up during the last thirty years. Its great public buildings are few. St. 
Michael’s Church is very handsome outside ; St. Thomas’, inside ; and the large, gloomy 
Bethanien Hospital, with its three hundred and fifty beds, makes up for being homely in 
taking excellent care of the sick and wounded, who are brought to it day and night. 
This is a manufacturing district. Here are crowded, one on another, establishments for 
making furniture, working metals, tanning leather, and opposite to them are the great 
shawl factories and cloth mills, and near by hundreds of people are at work in the 
gigantic buildings where sugar is refined, spirits distilled, paper, silks, sewing machines, 
and other valuable articles in Berlin trade are made. Bordering upon the factories are vast 
blocks occupied by yards for wool and for wood and coal. The vegetable gardens are fur¬ 
ther out and near them are immense markets for garden produce and cattle. In the midst 
and the vicinity of all these many of the poor of the great city live in their great shabby 
tenements, so striking in contrast that one would scarcely believe that these unpleasant, 
busy, dirty quarters on the southern and eastern outskirts belong to the same city as the 
palace-lined streets of the Outer Friedrichstadt and the Privy Councilors’ Quarter. 

Some of the important cities in Germany and other monarchies are free ; that is, they 
can make their own laws and are under the protection of the Emperor, but subject to 
no other power. The largest of German free cities is Hamburg, which is also a free port, 
having to pay no tax itself for the right of navigation, but receiving a toll on all foreign 
shipping. These good privileges were granted in the Thirteenth Century by the Emperor 
Francis I., who saw that the insignificant city, five hundred years old then, was in the 
right place to become a strong outpost and wealthy seaport ; it began to improve at 



Germany . 


! 33 



once, and has ever since been one of the most important commercial cities of the world. 
With its port of Cuxhaven it commands much of the open sea-coast of Germany at the 
mouth of the mighty Elbe river, which here forms a harbor from three to five miles wide. 
In this situation, open to direct connection with all the ports of the North Sea, and with¬ 
in a short distance from the Baltic, 

Hamburg ranks among the first 
ports of Northern Europe, and is 
second only to Berlin among all 
German cities. Nearly all traces 
of its flourishing medieval days 
were swept away by the great fire 
of 1842. The city therefore is 
now mainly made up of new streets 
and modern buildings, except down 
by the harbor. The harbor itself, 
with many vessels from all quar¬ 
ters of the globe, is always full of 
life and activity, with locks and 
canals overhung by great cranes 
and derricks entirely cutting up 
the central and eastern part of the 
city. The old fortifications which 
encircled the inner town have had 
an eventful history ; they kept 
out every enemy during the Thirty 
Years’ War ; but had to yield to 
Napoleon, in 1806, whose garrison 
suffered deprivation and death 
under the Russian siege ; in the 
next year Hamburg joined the 
German confederation and de¬ 
voted itself to its own affairs ; the 
walls are leveled now, and are 
only marked by the handsome 
green ring of boulevards and canal at Hamburg. 

promenades between the old town 

and the suburbs. These are very extensive, including some adjoining cities and a popu¬ 
lation of four hundred and fifty thousand. Travelers say that Hamburg is one of the most 
beautiful cities in Germany, although one part is old and dingy, and its narrow streets 

















134 


Cities of the World. 



are overhung with half decayed houses of a former century. “ But as we go back from 
the river, we mount higher, and come into an entirely different town, with wide 
streets, lined with large fine buildings. The peculiar beauty of the town is formed by 

a small stream, the 
Alster, which runs 
through the city and 
empties into the 
Elbe, and which is 
dammed up so as to 
form two very pretty 
sheets of water, one 
within the northern 
promenades, separ¬ 
ated from the outer 
lake by a handsome 
bridge.” Around 
the inner lake are 
grouped the largest 
hotels and some of 
the finest buildings 
in the city, and this 
is the center of its 
joyous life, especially 
at the close of day. 
When evening comes 
on all Hamburg 
flocks to the “ Alster- 
dam’,” or lake-em¬ 
bankment. Then it 
is the brightest, gay¬ 
est of places. The 
water is covered with 
boats, gliding about 
among the tame 
swans ; “the quays 
Hamburg marketwoman. are lighted up bril¬ 

liantly and the cafes 

swarm with people ; all ages are abroad enjoying the cool evening air.” Among the few 
grand old buildings that escaped the fire there are three beautiful churches, especially 





















Germany. 


135 



the Nicholas Church, now standing in an open square on one of the largest canals, in 
the vicinity of imposing new buildings. The spire of this church is said by the Ham¬ 
burgers to be a few feet higher than the Cathedral of Cologne ; the guide-books give it 
at four hundred and seventy-three feet, or the third highest in Europe—Cologne and 
Rouen being more lofty. 

On the western side of the city is a peculiar district or suburb between Hamburg 
and the adjoining city of 
Altona, called St. Pauli. 

This is the great sailors’ 
rendezvous, best known 
as the “ burg ” of Ham¬ 
burg. The place, from 
water front to its furthest 
northern limits, is full of 
theaters, gardens, cafes 
and all kinds of places 
of outdoor and indoor 
amusements, with booths 
and cheap bazars, and 
any number of hawkers 
and venders, thriving off 
the continual stream of 
transient tars from every 
clime. 

Active, busy Breslau, 
with its woolen mills and’ 
silk looms and the branch¬ 
ing Oder calmly flowing 
through it, does not look 
like a city of checkered 
history. The handsome 
lively streets or the grand 
old buildings do not show spring floods at Hamburg. 

any traces of its having 

been stormed and captured, retaken and fought over for centuries ; but its old walls saw 
the sieges ; and, whether they wanted to or not, did their stoutest to guard the Bohemians 
against the Poles, as shortly before they had shielded the Poles from the Bohemians ; or 
it was the Prussians and the Austrians that alternately held or stormed the city. If walls 
only had tongues as well as ears ! But after all it would do us no good now, 


















136 


Cities of the World. 


for they have been taken down and a beautiful tree-planted promenade lies in their places, 
just within the old moat, called the City Canal. These are crossed by some very fine bridges 
and overlooked by many fine buildings, old and new. The Old Town thus inclosed, is laid 
out in regular squares, and crossed about midway between the canal and the center by a set 
of three parallel streets, describing almost a complete half circle below the Oder, where 
the main part of the city is situated. Every thing tends toward the Ring, a large square 
in the center, which has always been the busiest part of the town, the heart of trade from 
which the main arteries are the central streets running from it to the north and south 
and to the east and west. Breslau is the third city of Germany, and the second of Prus¬ 
sia, having about three hundred thousand people ; it is the capital of Silesia, and stands 
in the center of a large manufacturing district, from which it keeps up an extensive trade 
by water and rail with important cities on every side. Its own manufactures yield a 
large income, for the dress goods of all kinds, the ornaments, machinery and articles 
used in housekeeping made here in the Oder Valley, are in constant demand. The gay 
stores and steady business push of the inner town is in strange contrast with its som¬ 
ber, massive buildings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The City Hall and Coun¬ 
cil Chambers, standing in the Center of the Ring, are among the most magnificent build¬ 
ings in Prussia, “ noble monuments,” they are called, “ to the prosperous age of Charles 
IV. and other Luxemburg monarchs.” The University stands in the upper part of the 
Old Town, on the bank of the river, with some of its buildings on an island opposite 
called the Sands. The most celebrated churches of Breslau are on the upper bank, 
reached from the island and the main-land by several bridges ; chief among them is the 
old cathedral, which was finished in the fourteenth century after four hundred years of 
building. 

Dresden has long been famous for the china-ware manufactured at the adjacent 
town of Meissen, where the Royal Porcelain Manufactory is still carried on. Unlike most 
of the cities grown from medieval towns, the capital of Saxony was of no importance 
until the end of that sleeping-time in art; and it came into note with the Renaissance at 
the close of the fifteenth century, introducing the ornamental designing in its pottery 
and architecture, for which it has been called the “ Cradle of Rococo Art.” 

It is truly German in having a center stadt or old town, with newer parts grouped 
about it ; but this is not so distinct in Dresden as in many older cities. It is about the 
size of Bordeaux in France, with two hundred and fifty thousand people ; without count¬ 
ing the many visitors always in the city, for the fame of its collections has spread to every 
part of the world. The greatest center of attraction is on the lower bank of the swift¬ 
flowing Elbe, along which there are many of the most magnificent buildings in the city. 
To the right is the new Court Theater, adjoining a fine openplatz on one side and pretty 
garden on the other, both embellished with fountain and statues. The front of the 
building, in which are the ante-rooms and auditorium, stands out in a large semi-circle, 


Germany . 137 

with a magnificent turreted portico, adorned with statues. The interior is gorgeously 
decorated with sculpture in marble, colored columns and paintings upon the walls and 
ceilings by eminent artists. Near by, with the great square of the Theater Platz separat¬ 
ing it from the river, is the elaborate Zwinger (or Great Court), which, vast and grand as 
it is, was intended only as the vestibule of a palace by Augustus II., called the Strong, 
who died in 1733, before his splendid plans were completed. They were never carried 
out, but the Zwinger was finished in later years, in a set of pavilions, connected by a 
gallery of one story and inclosing a large oblong court, which is laid out in pleasure 
grounds adorned with statuary and, in summer, with orange trees. The north-east wing 
of the Zwinger is the museum, made up of the famous picture gallery, engravings, draw¬ 
ings and a room of casts. The remainder and the pavilions are occupied by the museum 
of zoology and minerals and a collection of mathematical and physical instruments. The 
pictures are arranged in a long series of rooms, lighted from above with side courts ;. so 
you are not bewildered with a host of beautiful objects at once, but, following on, see one 
distinct collection after another. This gallery was founded about the middle of the last 
century, but already ranks with the Paris Louvre, the Pitti and the Uffizi Palaces of Flor¬ 
ence, as the finest in the world. Opposite the eastern end of the Zwinger there is a fine 
open platz with some handsome churches adjacent and large public buildings at the head 
of the parallel rings of streets ; Prince’s Palace is part of the vast, irregular old pile of 
the King’s Palace which occupies the principal place among the massive group of build¬ 
ings. The Green Gate in the northern facade is surmounted by the loftiest tower in 
Dresden, and leads to the Great Court of the Palace, through which you pass, full of 
admiration for the beautiful work of by-gone kings you see on every side, to the Green 
Vault, a wing named from the color on the walls of one room. Here is the most precious 
collection of curiosities in the world,—jewels, trinkets and small works of art, ornaments 
wrought by goldsmiths of the sixteenth and seventeenth cenuries, enamels of Limoges, 
carved ivories and cut crystals. There are also other most interesting cabinets in the 
Palace, and the Royal Gallery of Arms, adjoining; but still further beyond rises the old 
Johanneum on the corner of the New Market, where the celebrated historical museum 
is kept. This is the most important and valuable collection of historical relics in Ger¬ 
many. There are weapons and armor, household articles and wearing apparel labeled 
and arranged according to date ; they range from objects used in the sixteenth century 
down, showing the life and customs of people of earlier days. 

Besides these there are many things that have been owned and used by famous people : 
a chair, a cabinet, and two rings that belonged to Martin Luther and a suit made of 
silver for Christian II. of Saxony. The collection is divided into different sections, there 
being the Pistol Chamber, the Battle Saloon with suits of armor, blood stained clothing, 
swords, weapons and many other things from the famous battle fields of Germany ; the 
Saddle Chamber, with ancient trappings of the Saxon Kings and Electors ; the Cos- 


138 


Cities of the World. 


tume Chamber, in which are the coat and boots worn by Napoleon I. at the battle of 
Dresden, and many others. The Johanneum has also a collection of porcelain contain¬ 
ing about fifteen thousand pieces arranged according to their age. It is the finest col¬ 
lection in the world, and includes ware made in China, Japan, East India, France and 
Italy ; while that of Dresden itself, from the first attempt of Bottger early in 1700 down 
to the present day, the other modern European manufactures of Sevres, Berlin, etc., is 
most interesting of all. 

All around the Johanneum there are other buildings,—Academies, collections and 
galleries, and in front of them is the Bruhl Terrace, a celebrated promenade along the 
river. A broad flight of steps, decorated with gilded groups of Night, Morning, Noon 
and Evening in sandstone, descends from the gardens, the pretty walks, cafes and other 
out-door attractions of the Terrace, to the Schloss Platz, which stands at the head of the 
Augustus Bridge, leading to the Neu Stadt. This is the center bridge and the finest of the 
three crossing the Elbe at Dresden, all of which are masterpieces of bridge-building. The 
Marien Bridge further west leads to the gardens of the Japanese Palace, which is chiefly 
noted for its collection of antique vases, bronzes, terra-cottas, tombs and statues, and 
the more important royal public library, which was founded some time in 1500 by the 
Elector Augustus. The center of the New Town is a large circular place called the 
Alberts Platz, from which very broad and handsome streets radiate in every direction. 
One of them leads to the Japanese Palace, with its beautiful gardens on the upper 
bank of the river ; others go through a district entirely built up with large barracks and 
military hospitals, a town in themselves ; but the main avenue and the handsomest one 
is wider than all the others and planted with double rows of trees ; it connects the Platz with 
the Augustus Bridge in the great Market Place above the quay. This is a lively place 
at all times, but especially so on market days, when you have the best of chances to see 
Dresden at work. The chief play-ground, or pleasure garden of the city is the Great 
Garden (used the same as we say park ), on the south-eastern outskirts. It is reached from 
the Old Town by a long and slightly curving set of promenades planted with trees called 
the Burgerweise. About midway along this beautiful set of garden-streets stands the 
grounds and stately buildings of Prince George’s Palace, while the adjoining streets con¬ 
tain some of the most magnificent new residences to be seen in any city. The Great 
Garden is a royal park of about three hundred acres, with the Lust Schloss or Palace of 
Pleasure in the center. This was built for a royal chateau in 1680, but is now used for 
the royal Museum of Antiquities, chiefly of objects made during the Middle Ages. 

This park is large and particularly beautiful, the resort of all classes of people. 
There are plenty of restaurants and cafes and in summer-time a band plays regularly. 
The people stroll in family groups or seat themselves in pleasant companies in the cafe, 
when one and all drink the national beverage. On a holiday evening, thousands enjoy 
themselves in this way. There are a number of fine animals in the Zoological Garden, 
which occupies the lower part of the park. 


Germany. 


139 


With its academies, schools, institutes and superb collections, Dresden has better 
opportunities for education than almost any city on the continent ; there is a large 
English quarter, made up of families, who have found they could live economically and 
comfortably while giving their boys and girls the best instruction and associations. The 
most famous art city in Germany is Munich. It is made up of an endless succession of 
extensive and magnificent palaces in which are gathered some of the richest treasures 
of paintings, sculpture and all other branches of art in the world. It lies at a height of 



THE “BAVARIA” AND THE HALL OF FAME, MUNICH. 

almost two thousand feet above the sea on the southern bank of the “ Iser, rolling rapid¬ 
ly.” It was a little town, known in the twelfth century ; the capital of the kingdom but 
without any celebrity, until the reign of Ludwig I. Now almost every church, palace and 
public hall, representing all the fine styles of architecture, is worthy a separate description, 
with their galleries and cabinets, nearly all of which have been raised during the last fifty 
years. To visit Munich thoroughly is a journey, almost wearisome, through broad streets, 
extensively laid out with one sumptuous edifice after another ; but many strangers go 

•> 


























140 


Cities of the World. 


there to live. It is a cheaper place of residence than any other in Germany, and in 
addition to its vast attractions in art has a fine university, called the Ludwig-Maximilian, 
and a great many special schools and institutes for scientific and literary study. Although 
it is as large as Dresden in population, it is not very thriving in a business way, excepting 
the iron, brass and bell foundries, and its numbers of engravers, lithographers and 
manufacturers of fine scientific instruments, who have a world-wide fame. The Germans 
think much of Munich as the place where their best Bavarian beer is made ; the enor¬ 
mous breweries are royal institutions and an important part of the city, employing a great 
many people. Other factories supply moderate quantities of some common articles of 
general use. One can hardly remember the names of all the galleries, museums, and 
palatial buildings ; it is difficult to pick out even half a dozen more interesting than the 
others. 

One that is the oftenest referred to, perhaps, is the Old Pinakothek, which is named 
from the Greek and means, “ repository of pictures.” It is said to be the noblest picture 
gallery in Europe ; it contains hall after hall of almost fourteen hundred beautiful 
paintings. The New Pinakothek, although it is not so grand a building, is celebrated 
for the great frescoes representing the development of art, on the outside ; it has, within, 
a vast collection of paintings by the greatest modern artists. The Glyptothek is the 
u repository of sculptures ; ” a building of the Greek style outside, with Roman interior, 
devoted to ancient statuary. The Ruhmeshalle, or Hall of Fame, that stands above the 
city, is almost always visited by strangers, less on account of its collections than to see 
the wonderful statue of Bavaria standing at the head of the staircase on the terrace 
leading to the Hall. The bronze figure, with a lion by her side, is about seventy feet 
high, and of splendid workmanship ; a spiral staircase in the center leads to the head, 
from which there is a wide view of the city. The Royal Palace, about the most ancient 
building in the place, has many apartments of the most unique and curious collections in 
Munich, beside paintings and sculpture ; the curiosities are of crystals, miniatures and a 
fantastic shell grotto. In the Festsaalbau, or building of festive halls, six of the saloons 
are decorated with wall paintings from the Odyssey, telling the story of the principal 
events in the journey of Ulysses, the Greek hero, who was carried by storms and oracles 
far out of his homeward way, after the Trojan war. The apartments called the 
Konigsbau , adjoining, are in imitation of the Pitti Palace at Florence, and have a series 
of frescoes telling the story of the Niebelungen Lied. This famous legend comes from 
some old manuscript copies of a poem, whose age and author are unknown. It is the 
greatest epic poem in the German language and describes the wonderful deeds of the 
the race of Niebelungen, who are finally conquered by Siegsfried. The miraculous 
achievements of this hero, his death and that of his avenged queen make up the prin¬ 
cipal part of the story. The Munich cemetery, which Mr. Longfellow has told us is 
called “ God’s acre,” is also called the “ Friedhof,” or “ Court of Peace ; ” it is very 


Germany . 


141 



extensive and contains some interesting monuments and the scene once common in Ger¬ 
many, but now confined to Munich, of depositing bodies “ with coffin lid raised to 
show the sleeping form ” in a kind 
of corridor behind a glass screen, 
where they lie until the regular 
time of burial, when the lids of 
the coffins to be buried are closed, 
and the priest or pastor comes, 
and holds a short service at the 
grave. 

A large number of the Ger¬ 
man immigrants to this country 
come from the thriving manufac¬ 
turing city of Bremen. This is 
situated on the Weser river, about 
forty miles from where it empties 
into the North Sea ; and next to 
Hamburg it is the largest free 
city of the Empire, being second 
to that city also in maritime trade. 

The Old Town is on the upper 
bank, with its garden-promenades 
on the site of the medieval fortifi¬ 
cation, where the serpentine moat 
is still full of water ; the quaint 
market place is in the center, and 
many fine public buildings of 
another century, stand in large, 
open squares, or the irregular 
curving streets; several bridges 
cross the main stream, or the 
Weser branch to the left bank, 
where the New Town has been 
built up since the Thirty Years’ 

War. Bremen is larger in extent 
for the number of people living luther’s house, frankfort. 

in it than most towns, because the 

houses usually have only one family; the people are mainly occupied by the great fac¬ 
tories, where woolens, cottons, paper and cigars are made ; in shipbuilding, brew- 


/ 




































142 


Cities of the World. 


eries, distilleries, and sugar refineries. The river will not admit large vessels at all 
tides, so it has a port, Bremerhaven, about ten miles from the sea. This has fine docks 
and quays, furnished with improved magazines and cranes, and carries on an active 
trade with foreign countries, particularly the United States. An equally famous city of 
the size of Bremen—two hundred thousand people—is Frankfort-on-the-Main. Its 
reputation is not so much for work, however, as for wealth, which is said to be greater 
for its size than any other in the world. 

“ If its wealth were equally divided among its inhabitants, every man, woman and 
child would have, it is said, 20,000 marks, or some $5,000 apiece. Although there are a 
good many poor people in the town, most of the citizens are in unusually comfortable 
circumstances. It is stated that there are one hundred Frankforters worth from about 
$4,000,000 to $7,000,000 each, and two hundred and fifty who are worth $3,000,000 and 
upward. The city is one of the great banking centers of the globe. Its aggregate bank¬ 
ing capital is estimated at $2,000,000,000, more than one-fourth of which the famous 
Rothschilds own and control, whose original and parent house is there. Its general trade 
and manufacturing industries are not small; some of the most important are the making 
of carpets, jewelry, sewing-machines and tobacco, and the publishing and selling of 
books. These interests have greatly increased since the formation of the German 
Empire, to which Frankfort was originally averse, being a free city and an opponent of 
Prussia. It was coerced, in July, 1866, by General Von Falkenstein, who entered it at 
the head of an army and imposed a fine of 31,000,000 florins, or over twelve million of 
dollars, for its insubordination.” 

“ The old watch-towers show the jealously guarded limits of the ‘ Free Imperial City,’ 
but, as in Vienna, the vast ancient ramparts have been leveled and the Ring, here called 
Anlagen, beautifully planted and adorned with sumptuous private and public buildings, 
gives an air of nobleness to the city.” Beyond the tower of St. Bartholomew’s Cathe¬ 
dral there are few attractive buildings. Its real interest is in its history, beginning with 
the time when Charlemagne selected the “Ford of the Franks” for a great convoca¬ 
tion of bishops and nobles. This was the beginning of the city’s growth, after which it 
increased in importance, till it finally was chosen as the place for the imperial elections. 

In Frankfort stand two private houses which to many are of greater interest than 
any thing else in the city—in the Hirschgraben, is the place where Goethe was born ; 
and not far from it, in the Cathedral Square, the long, narrow house, with its three- 
sided abutment of bay windows from first story to its gabled roof, is where Martin 
Luther once lived. The Frankfort Jews’ Quarter, like those in Prague, Vienna, and 
other German cities, was long kept apart from the rest of the city, and was a gloomy 
close and squalid and almost separate colony; but it is not a poor quarter in another 
sense. The Rothschilds and other famous and wealthy houses were founded here : the 
Jews now mingle with other residents on equal terms. 


Germany . 143 

One of the most famous cities in the world is Cologne. It is the largest town on 
the Rhine, and although comparatively little of it is ever described beyond the wonderful 
Cathedral, without this it would be far from insignificant. It was founded about half a 
century before Christ, but later came to have the name of Cologne, from being called the 
Colonia Agrippina , after the wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius, whose colonists settled 
here. It is surrounded by strong walls and protected by forts. On the opposite t}ank is 
the town of Deutz, which is a suburb of the city, reached by a bridge of boats and a fine 
iron suspension bridge for railway and carriage traffic. Cologne is the capital of Rhenish 



COLOGNE, AND THE BRIDGE OF BOATS. 


Prussia—a frontier country—and is well situated for commerce, which has always been 
extensive and is now growing important. There are several kinds of manufactures 
carried on, too : articles for household use and furniture, chemicals, tobacco, and the 
spirits of wine, beside the hundreds of thousands of bottles of perfumery water, named 
after the city eau-de-Cologne (water from Cologne), and famous all over the world. The 
streets are the narrow, crooked by-ways of medieval times, overhung by massive and 
picturesque buildings, a great many of which are churches. It used to be said that 



















144 


Cities of the World. 


Cologne had a church for every day in the year. Several of them are of beautiful archi¬ 
tecture and decoration, and contain relics to which the guides attach the most improbable 
stories ; but none can compare with the majesty and beauty of the grand old Cathedral, the 
most magnificent Gothic structure ever erected by human hands. It is a forest of stone, 
in the form of a cross, five hundred feet long, two hundred and thirty feet wide, rising, 
tier on. tier, to its lofty pointed roof, above which the two front towers rise to five hundred 
feet, with a smaller iron spire in the center of the roof. No other work of man can com¬ 
pare with its long nave and pillared aisles; perhaps “the avenue of New Haven elms 
comes nearest to it.” The mighty work was begun some time in 1200—it is not known 
just when, nor from whose design—and was finished in 1880. It is said to be the largest 
in the world ; and its towers the highest. There is nothing in Europe so high, but the 
Monument to Washington, at the United States capital, towers fifty feet above them. 

The greatest university city in Germany is Leipsic, the “town of the lime-trees,” 
near the western border of Prussia, with the Elster, the Pleisse and the Parthe rivers 
flowing through or past it. The laboratories and halls of the university are scattered 
through the quaint, narrow streets of the Inner Town, or upon the wide, well-built 
avenues and spacious squares of the newer quarters ; but the main building is one of the 
beautiful group surrounding the Augustus Platz, between the Old Town and 
the eastern suburb. This is a stately, vacant looking platz usually, with its magnificent 
buildings and sculptured monuments ; but when the great Eastern fair is held, it teems 
with life. Then book-sellers throng the city from far and near, to attend the annual 
trade convention in the Bo^k Sellers Exchange ; for Leipsic is the principal place in 
Germany—or the world, after London and Paris, for every thing connected with the 
book-trade. At the Eastern fair over a thousand selling or publishing houses are repre¬ 
sented, in this city ; there are three hundred book-stores in Leipsic alone, and over fifty 
printing establishments, which has led to a great type-foundry business here, also, which 
is the largest in the empire. Altogether, the transactions during the three or four weeks 
of the Eastern fair amount to fifty millions of dollars. This is not entirely from books 
but largely so, in the bargains for the regular yearly trade and special sale of rare vol¬ 
umes and literary curiosities. It is attended by Europeans, Americans, Jews, Turks, 
Greeks, Armenians, Persians, and even Chinese. There are two other fairs held here 
every year ; the most important being the June Wool Market. The Augustus Platz is 
overlooked by the magnificent buildings of the museum, the New Theater, one of the 
finest in Germany, and the Augusteum or main part of the University. Adjoining this 
there are handsome gardens with a lake, skirted by the promenades laid out over the old 
fortifications. These now serve to mark the dividing line between the Old Town of the 
eleventh century, and the newer city lying about it on all sides. These promenades are 
a favorite resort for students and town people, who linger here by thousands “ when 
monies still evening on.” The walks are planted with beautiful avenues of lime and 


Germany . 


H5 


chestnut trees, which broaden out into little parks in several places. In the center of 
the Old Town is the Market Place, where the quaint tower of the ancient Town Hall rises 
above lofty antique mansions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In a walk 
through any of the streets running from here you would see a great many of these old 
houses, standing closely packed together, as if to leave no space room for modern archi¬ 
tecture to wedge itself in. Near the Market Place, on the finest street leading to the 
University, is Auerbachs’ Cellar, the famous restaurant where Goethe has laid a scene in 
his drama of “ Faust ; ” it has always been a rendezvous for students ; the great poet 



TOWN HALL, LEIPSIC. 


who used to come here very often, saw, as you and I can see now, the Faust legend 
in ancient fresco paintings on the walls. Schiller lived in Leipsic once, too ; the house 
is above the Market Place, in Hain Strasse, where, also, the great composer, Richard 
Wagner, was born. This street is now a resort for Jews who come to the fairs, and is 
taken up with the fur stores and other shops of a great many Jewish dealers. Everywhere 
in the midst of the life and pleasure of the living Leipsic there are monuments and tab¬ 
lets, reminding you of great men who have been here in the past. In the Concert Room 
of the Library Mendelssohn conducted the orchestra and chorus some fifty years ago ; 






















146 


Cities of the World* 


and the conservatory of music, which is the most famous in Europe, has a long, long list 
of celebrated men that have been connected with it ; but greater names than these 
stands on the roll of the University. This is chief among all other places in the city ; it 
was established in the first years of 1400, after the dispute at Prague between the Ger¬ 
mans and Bohemians. There are about a hundred and fifty professors and lecturers, and 
about three thousand students, more than any other in Germany, the land of Universi¬ 
ties,—with Halle excelling in theology; Gottingen, in jurisprudence, with Tubingen 
and half-a-dozen others, to say nothing of Berlin and “enchanting Heidelburg,” as 
famous for its beautiful scenery as its great lecturers. It is due to the University that 
Leipsic is so great a center for literary and intellectual life, and that it is so wonder¬ 
fully well supplied with libraries, museums and other educational advantages as it is. 

Magdeburg, on the Elbe, in Prussian Saxony, is one of the most strongly fortified 
towns in the kingdom ; it is also famous for commerce and trade by water and the great 
railways that meet here, and is a familiar name in history. Martin Luther spent his boy¬ 
hood here ; he used to sing in the streets and receive the bounty of the people. Otto 
von Guericke, who invented the air-pump and astonished the imperial diet with his 
“ hemisphere experiment,” was burgomaster of Magdeburg, and named his great experi¬ 
ment with air the “ Magdeburg Hemispheres.” 

The city has had an important place in the religious troubles of Germany ever since 
967, when it was chosen by Pope John XIII. as the see of the primate of the Old Em¬ 
pire. The archbishops and town officers were often at war during the Middle Ages ; and 
when the city adopted the doctrines of reform, it drew down the wrath of both the 
emperor and the archbishops. But even these troubles were far short of the calamities 
that fell upon the fortress during the Thirty Years’ War. For twenty-eight weeks it stood 
the siege of the imperialists, but, betrayed by one of the inhabitants to Tilly, who 
entered it and spent three days in sacking it ; the enemy put it to flames and the most 
wanton destruction from which the cathedral and only about a hundred and fifty houses 
escaped. Thirty thousand people were slain, and a great many thrown into the river. In- 
house No. 164 in Breitezveg —Broadway—the betrayer of the city used to live ; in front of 
it you now see: Remember the ioth May, 1631. This street is long and wide, but 
throughout the rest of the town the busy thoroughfares are nearly all narrow and crooked. 
Magdeburg and its archbishopric became a duchy in 1648, of the house of Brandenburg ; 
in the early part of the century it was taken by the French, but restored again to Prussia 
with the fall of Napoleon, eight years later. It is now the Prussian Saxony capital, 
thrivingly busy, and inhabited by about a hundred and fifty thousand people, as many 
as there are in Montreal, Canada. 





ENCHANTING HEIDELBERG 







































































































SCANDINAVIA. 


T HE great sea-girt countries of Scandinavia are far more familiar to most young 
people as the land of the Northmen than of any nineteenth century greatness ; but the 
adventurous old sea-kings are gone like the fairies, “ ages and ages ago," and in their 
places large and civilized nations possess the beech groves and pine forests, lakes, fiords 
and rocky shores of the Land of the Midnight Sun. 

Of the three kingdoms, Denmark is the smallest, the most southerly and the most 
important. Adjoining the German state of Sleswick-Holstein, this little kingdom is 
situated on the peninsular of Jutland and on the group of islands that crowd the 
Kattegat, a broad arm of the Baltic between Jutland and Sweden. On the most easterly 
of these, looking across The Sound to Sweden is Copenhagen, the capital. 

The city lies partly upon the island of Zealand and partly upon the upper point of 
the much smaller island of Amager in the Sound, separated by a deep strait, which forms 
the Copenhagen Harbor. It is this, now lined with docks and always filled with ships, 
that first gave the city an existence as well as its name, which means Merchants’ Haven. 
Some of the quays are broad, well paved and planted with trees. The grim, unsightly old 
ramparts have been replaced on the land side by boulevards, but the batteries and 
fortifications toward the sea still stand. The appearance of the city has altered very 
much during the last fifteen years. The walls have been leveled, the streets enlarged 
and new buildings raised, all in welcome of returning commerce and trade after the 
troubles with Germany that came to an end in 1866. The fashionable quarter occupies 
the north-eastern portion of the city, with lofty gabled and dormer houses, often six 
stories high, and great buildings severely decorated with escutcheons and national 
devices. To the northward is the citadel and adjoining public gardens and walks on the 
shores of the Sound, and near by the handsome Amalienborg square, is where the 
royal palaces stand, which are occupied by the King, Christian IX., the Crown Prince, 
and one of the state ministers. The north-west corner of the town is a mariners’ quarter, 
where sea-faring men and their families have had their homes for two centuries in the 
one-storied houses that line the blocks of parallel streets. Below the vicinity of the 
Jack Tars’ cottages is the most beautiful place in Copenhagen, the Rosenborg Palace, 
standing at the end of a stately old garden. This was built for a royal residence early 
in 1600, but it has been a museum-palace for the last century and a half, with many 


COPENHAGEN, WITH A VIEW OF THE CHRIST IAN BORG PALACE. 











































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Cities of the World. 


150 

rooms full of things that belonged to Christian IV., the first Danish monarch who 
lived in it, and all who have followed him ; the latest things are of the date 1863. 
Adjoining the Palace is the Rosenborg Garden, which is usually filled with children 
and their nursery maids. “ There in the sunny afternoons of the long Northern summer 
days one may see children sporting in the long avenue overhung with grateful shade, 
at the end of which, in a little garden plat, stands the statue of Hans Christian 
Andersen,” the great Danish story-teller. Copenhagen was Andersen’s home during a 
part of his life, and here many of his wonderful tales are laid. You can see the very 
East Street mentioned in the “ Goloshes of Fortune,” narrow, winding, and now-a-days 
lined with many French-looking stores ; in front of the Fredericks Hospital is the iron 
picket fence “ through which the unfortunate young man thrust his head,” and there is 
also Holmens Kanal, from which Andersen started in his “ Journey on Foot.” From the 
Kanal there is quite a fine view of the business part of the city, which lies below the 
aristocratic quarter. In about the center, between the two, is the Kongens Nytorv, or 
King’s New Market, a modern-looking circular place with trees surrounding a statue in 
the center. From here a canal with its broad quays, its shipping and warehouses runs 
eastward to the Harbor, and the broad Gothengade (street) in the opposite direction, leads 
past the Rosenborg Gardens and Boulevard to the pleasant walks of the Botanical Gardens. 
Thirteen streets radiate from the Market, of which the Oestergade is the gayest and 
the handsomest with its fine shops and steady stream of people. Copenhagen is a city, 
full of active, energetic people ; they are mainly merchants and students, “ each all 
Dane ” for the time, though natives of many lands. In this lower part of the city, with 
its narrow, crooked and irregular streets, an arm running from the Harbor forms a large 
and almost square island occupied by the Christianborg Palace and adjoining buildings, 
the most notable group in the city. The vast courts of the palace contain the halls of 
the Royal Picture Gallery, the Upper and Lower Chambers of the Danish Parliament, 
the Supreme Law Courts, the fine Royal Library, the Royal Stables and the Arsenal. 
Adjoining the Palace, on the harbor quay, is the picturesque red brick building of the 
Exchange, with its famous dragon spire, formed of three marvelous dragons with their 
tails, twisted together in the air, reaching a height of a hundred and fifty feet. “ A queer 
building, in the shadow of the palace, which attracts notice by its frescoed walls, is the 
Thorwaldsen Museum, where Denmark has collected all the works and memorials of her 
greatest artist, Bertel Thorwaldsen.” It contains either originals or copies of all the 
statuary the celebrated sculptor ever made. Crossing the Harbor by the lower bridge 
you reach the Vor Frelsers Kirke, or Church of Our Redeemer, which has a winding 
staircase on the outside of the steeple to the figure of the Saviour on the summit. The 
view from here extends even to the coast of Sweden, across the Sound. The Vor Frue 
Kirke, or Church of Our Land, with its beautiful marble statuary by Thorwaldsen, and 
the Trinity Church, with its famous old Round Tower, ascended by a winding brick 


Stockholm. 


I5i 

causeway, so wide that horses can be driven up and down it, are in the south-west corner 
of the city, in the vicinity of the great University. This is attended by over a thousand 
students, and here is a Danish “ Latin Quarter,” where many men are supported by the 
government while they carry on studies in the highest branches of learning. It is a 
great center for other than Danish students and is the seat of many important societies 
for the advancement of art and the literature of the North. English is much spoken 
here and the people wear the plain European dress, familiar to us. The Danes 
themselves are cosmopolitan, that is, not bound to old national customs, and the capital 
is peopled from all nations. With the population of the adjoining suburbs it is the size 
of New Orleans, Louisiana, having about two hundred and fifty thousand people. The 
great city pleasure ground lies beyond the southern boulevard, opposite the University 
quarter. At the Tivoli, as it is called, all kinds of evening amusements are provided in 
the illuminated gardens and woods—some of the beeches for which Denmark is so 
famous—and the tiny lake. All classes of people meet here on an equality ; they ride in 
the “ rush-railway,” whose little cars sweep down curves and up in a most delightful take- 
your-breath-away fashion ; they see the dramas, or the dancing, loiter in the restaurants 
or cafes, or stroll through the pleasant walks. Another promenade is along the high 
dam or mound leading northward along the shores of the Sound and commanding a view 
of the vessels sailing through the narrow branch of the sea between the city and 
Amager. 

The second city of Scandinavia is Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. It 
stands at the head of the lovely Lake Malar, the last of a chain of water-ways made up 
of lakes and canals, that cross the peninsula. Lake Malar is dotted all over with 
islands of every form and size, some surmounted with castles and others studded with 
peasants’ houses and fishing hamlets. Stockholm is a city of the most striking 
contrasts, situated on seven islands or holms, at the outlet of the lake into the Baltic. 
It is the most beautiful of all Northern cities and bears the name of the Northern Venice 
more appropriately than Amsterdam. But it is far from a copy of the famous city of 
the south, having its own peculiar beauty ; its islands are made by natural arms of the 
sea and its surroundings are majestic hills, crags and wooded landscapes. The most 
picturesque of the islets is the Sodermalm, on whose steep sides the houses, connected 
more by steps than by roads, rise in terraced rows to the summit, which is crowned by 
the church of St. Catherine. This island was once a rugged mountain, but is now a 
southern suburb ; from its built-up heights there is still a magnificent view of the 
water-streets, the life and northern architecture of the capital ; on a holm near by is the 
Deergarden, a great pleasure ground that is full of attractions and of people winter and 
summer. Other little parks and delightful promenades are scattered throughout the 
city. The center isle of the group is occupied by a huge palace built in the middle of 
the last century and “ the old church of Riddarholmen, where Gustavus Adolphus, the 


152 


Cities of the World. 


greatest soldier and most faultless king of Sweden, and many other royal persons repose 
beneath the banner-hung arches. The bridge at the junction of the lake and the 
Baltic is the center of life, and below them is a little pleasure garden,” where hundreds 
of people are constantly eating and drinking under the trees, and where strains of music 
are wafted late into the summer night ; the little steam gondolas, filled with people, dart 
and hiss through the waters from one island to another, for bridges are few in the cify 
and the water-ways innumerable, and the little boats are the chief means of 
communication, a passage only costing what is equal to one penny. The streets of the 
older quarters of the town are narrow, crooked and poorly paved. The capital was 
founded in about the thirteenth century and called Stockholm, or the Stake Island, 
because the islands were enlarged by piles or stakes. The newer parts are made up of 
fine, straight streets and large squares built up with stone houses; the suburban 
dwellings are mostly of wood. The king and his court reside in Stockholm ; the 
government and the courts meet here ; it is the center of Swedish society and literary 
culture and has a great many institutions both for education and doing good. It is the 
great commercial depot for Sweden in the country’s products of iron, deal planks and 
timber, and for the manufactures of the land, in which cabinet making and other 
branches of wood-working take the lead. Sweden is an industrious country with a 
wide-spread interest in education. The kingdoms of Sweden and Norway have the 
same monarch, crowned by each ; the same representatives abroad and a common mint. 
Otherwise they are perfectly distinct, each with its own institutions and laws. In Sweden 
there is a titled nobility, but not in Norway, although the large landed proprietors are 
really a sort of aristocracy. Norway, on the whole, is a nation of less cultivation than 
Sweden, with a population growing too fast for its resources. Still, education is 
compulsory and free and always includes several branches of useful knowledge with a 
large amount of training in Bible-history, Bible-reading, and psalm singing. The capital 
of the country and its largest town is Christiana, at the head of the Kattegat. 
It is the seat of government, a university town and a commercial port of the North Sea, 
but withal can not compare with Copenhagen or Stockholm. There are some pretty 
places about it, but none beautiful. “From the avenues upon the ramparts you look 
down over the broad expanse of the fiord, or strait, and see the low blue mountains in 
the distance. Little steamers dart backward and forward and convey visitors from 
one place to another among the surroundings. The town of Christiana proper was laid 
out by Christian IV. in 1614 in the form of a regular parallelogram of a thousand paces 
in length and breadth ; but the capital now includes several other quarters and suburbs, 
having altogether a population of about a hundred and twenty-five thousand people. 
The excellent university here is the only one in Norway and has about a thousand 
students in its various departments. The city has good schools and some celebrated 
learned societies. The manufactures carried on here are mainly in oil, cotton, paper, 



rHE LIVING-ROOM OF A SWEDISH HOUSI 


























































































































































































































































































































































































































































154 


Cities of the World. 


soap and bricks, with a number of distilleries and corn mills. There is quite a large 
export trade carried on with the ports of Denmark and England. What there is 
lacking of scenery in the dull town is fully made up in the beautiful bay with its steep 
and rocky shores and forests of Norwegian pines. The brave and hardy Scandinavians 
that you see here now are not unworthy descendants of the heroic race of Northmen. 
Being somewhat out of the course of the great stream of national intercourse, they keep 
many of their ancient characteristics in simple living, energy and national pride. “ Al¬ 
though in Norway and Sweden there are many mines and mills, most of the people gain 
their living either out of the soil or the sea. The farmer in either country is a marvel 
of industry and thrift ; he would live upon what an American farmer wastes, and live 
more comfortably than most of our farming people do. The amount of labor done at 
the special dairy-farms, to which cattle are driven in Summer, generally by girls, would 
horrify a Western maiden ; but the Swedish and Norwegian girls thrive on it, enjoying 
rare good health, and the happiness that it brings.” But a very large proportion of the 
people follow the sea for a living. In 1880 more than a thousand Norwegian 
vessels entered the port of New York, and seven times as many were busy elsewhere. 
More than sixty thousand sailors man those vessels, and yet Norwegian sailors are nu¬ 
merous in the merchant navy of almost every other country. About a hundred and 
twenty thousand Norwegians are engaged in fisheries. As a race the people are pro¬ 
foundly religious and also intolerant of all but the Protestant faith, although the State 
allows freedom of worship. Drunkenness and profanity are rare everywhere in Scan¬ 
dinavia ; there seems to be no idle, dangerous class. At fairs and feasts there is a great 
deal of drinking, but it is only for a short time and the fun never culminates in fighting. 

They are all very hospitable, Mr. Du Chaillu tells us, and “ as in all other countries 
that keep primitive habits, hospitality in Scandinavia means eating and drinking. The 
poorest farmer or fisherman always has something to offer the visitor, and if the guest 
show a lack of appetite it is felt to be a slight.” One time to avoid giving any offense, 
Mr. Du Chaillu ate thirty times in two days, and drank thirty-four cups of coffee. An 
old farmer will fiddle all the evening while his family—children and servants included— 
dance. He is very fond of visiting ; and a wedding is sufficient excuse for a three days 
jollification. Altogether, with the extensive preparations and the festival itself, a 
Scandinavian wedding is a very important affair. At all times a great deal of care is 
given to dress and to the beautifying of homes ; and a pleasant part of it is that the 
people do not let their love of display overcome good taste. 


THE NETHERLANDS. 


A CROSS the waters from the lower part of the North Sea coast of England, lies the 
low, canal-cut country once called Holland; now the United Kingdom of the 
Netherlands. It is about the size of the State of Maryland, with four and a half times 
as many people living in it; and made up of many large towns in its various provinces. 
Most of the country in the western part, being below the water level, has been walled in 
by dunes, or long hills of sand banked up by wind and waves. Where these fail there 
are strong dykes built of stones brought from Norway, timber, turf and clay, which are 
carefully watched and kept in order. A large part of the four million of people of the 
Netherlands live in towns, of which Amsterdam, the capital, is first, smaller in size but 
with about the same population as Baltimore ; that is between three and four hundred 
thousand. The “ Venice of the North,” it is called, but very inappropriately, for it 
lacks the color, the stateliness and every thing that distinguishes the “ Bride of the 
Adriatic ” from all other island-built cities of the world. 

The Zuider Zee is an arm of the German Ocean, or North Sea, about as large as the 
State of Rhode Island ; and near its southwestern corner, where the river Y, or Ij, is 
met by the Amstel, is the great, low-lying, half-moon shaped city, the town of Amstel’s 
dyke, or “ Amstel dam,” as it is often called. The view of Amsterdam from the harbor is 
very fine ; walled in from the sea by dykes on one side, and on the other, surrounded by 
rich grassy meadows ; quaint and flat, it is skirted by the old ramparts leveled into 
broad, tree-lined promenades, and studded with fantastic gabled roofs, chimneys, 
wind-mills, turrets, church-towers and spires of all shapes and sizes. Canals and 
branches of the Zuider Zee, running in every direction, divide the city into about ninety 
islands, which are connected by nearly three hundred bridges, made of stone, iron, or wood, 
and high enough for vessels to pass under. The town is built over a peat bog, upon piles 
driven through forty or fifty feet of loose sand and mud into firm, solid, clay below. 
Vessels have to unload part of their cargo outside in the Zuider Zee, for it is neither safe 
nor easy to cross the shallows and bar at the mouth of the Y. 

At one of the entrances of the city stands the “Crier’s Tower,” which was built in 
1482, and called the Schreyerstoren, because it was always a scene of parting between 
friends and sailors leaving for all parts of the globe. 

Near where the river Amstel enters the city is a large exhibition building, which has 
also a fine collection of paintings and a beautiful garden. This “ Paleis voor Volksvlyt,” 


156 


Cities of the World. 


as the Dutch call it, is nearly four hundred and fifty feet long and three hundred feet 
broad, while its great dome towers upward two hundred feet. The Amstel flows 
almost through the center of the city, dividing the modern part on the west from 
the old town on its eastern banks. The old town was a fishing village six hundred 
years ago, and is made up of narrow and irregular streets. In the center reaching to 
the moat on the outskirts, is the chief park of Amsterdam,—the Plantation,—where 
there are many fine walks, the botanic and the zoological gardens. The only other 
recreation ground of Amsterdam is Vondel’s Park, on the southern outskirts, j In the 
modern part of the old Dutch capital the streets and squares are handsome and 
spacious. Some of the principal canals run in semi-circles, one within another, and are 
bordered with tree-lined avenues of handsome houses, their picturesque gables toward 
the street. It is said that there is not a straight building in the whole place ; “ they lean 
forward and lean backward ; they lean to the right and lean to the left ; ” all of which 
is caused by the sinking of the piles on which they are built. On the great public 
square called the Dam, near the center of the city, is the Palace. This royal 
residence is almost square, adorned with handsome stone carving and resting 
on many thousand piles. It is nearly three hundred feet long with a tur- 
reted cupola rising sixty-six feet above the main building, which is one hundred and six¬ 
teen feet high. The most beautiful room in the Palace is a great hall, nearly as long as 
the building, more than fifty feet broad and ninety high,—lined entirely with white 
Italian marble. Across the Dam is the Exchange or Beurs, an immense building, which 
is the front of a fine square, or quadrangle as architects say, in handsome Ionian style. 
The “ Niewe Kerk,” near the Palace, is where the Dutch kings are crowned. It was 
built in 1408, and is a very fine church, containing many monuments to celebrated 
Dutchmen, wonderful work in a carved pulpit, and bronze castings. The “ Oude Kerk,” 
or Old Church, which was built in the fourteenth century, has also some great monuments, 
beautiful stained glass windows and a fine organ. There are other churches of many 
religions in Amsterdam ; the synagogue of the Shepardin Jews is one of the finest in the 
world, but excepting the Moses and Aaron Church, and the new Lutheran meeting 
house, with its cupola of green copper, few are either handsome or interesting. The 
city has beside many galleries of pictures by the old Dutch masters, art schools, 
museums, and a great number of noble institutions for giving help or care to people that 
are sick and afflicted. The Society for the Public Welfare has branches in nearly every 
town and village in Holland. 

Amsterdam has a large share in almost all the industries of the Netherlands : she 
sends out by canal and railway in greatest quantities, cheese and butter, madder for 
medicine, dyes and paints, clover and rape, linseed oil and gin ; and makes soap, oil, 
glass, iron, dyes and chemicals, beside refining a vast amount of sugar, and employing 
many people in brewing, tanning leather, founding type and making tobacco and snuff ; 



AMSTERDAM 
























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































158 


Cities of the World. 


while there is more diamond cutting done here than in any place in the world. Cen¬ 
turies ago Amsterdam was the center of the world’s banking business, and one of its 
greatest commercial ports. With the exception of Frankfort-on-the-Main, it now ranks 
as the richest city for its size in the world ; and its entire wealth has been earned by the 
greatest toil and perseverance in the face of every difficulty. Among the powerful 
banking firms of the world Hope & Co. stand next to the Rothschilds. Gem cutting has 
long been a specialty of the city ; the diamond mills as they are called are owned by the 
Jews, where there are nearly ten thousand Hebrews employed. 

The city has had to undergo many hard trials from jealous nations and home troubles 
which have altered its condition very much. But the people are good, industrious and 
enterprising ; they have recovered a great deal by building railroads, a great ship canal 
across North Holland from Mars Diep, which, in addition to the new canal being opened 
to the North Sea, will probably bring back to Amsterdam much of its lost importance in 
trade and commerce. Its quays are once more being thronged, its streets are crowded, 
its shops full of men and women ; and its warehouses are active and busy. No man, 
woman or child seems to be idle, every body seems to live up to the unspoken creed of 
industry, perseverance and prosperity, although a great deal of time might be better 
used by employing modern labor-saving and time-saving inventions. 

Rotterdam, the second city of the Netherlands, is a little more than half as large as 
Amsterdam. Standing where the little Rotte river meets the Maas, about twenty miles 
from its mouth, the city is shaped like a triangle, apex pointing toward the north, and 
base stretching along the Maas in a fine set of quays called the Boompjes ; these are 
bordered with elms planted nearly three hundred years ago and faced by a fine row 
of houses. 

Rotterdam is divided into two parts by Hoog Street, on a dyke built to keep out the 
water when it rises. The section on the north side is Binnenstad ; and on the south, 
extending to the Maas, it is Buitenstad. This lower part of town is cut into many is¬ 
lands by “havens,” or broad canals, whose docks are faced on both sides by lofty houses 
shaded by rows of beautiful trees. There are seven of the largest canals, which are so 
deep that immense ships can go their full length ; two run from the Maas, up into the 
city, while five are parallel with the river. 

Beside the great ocean traffic carried on by Rotterdam with other countries, it is an 
important port for vessels bound to and from the Rhine provinces of Prussia, not only 
for its own trade, but as a stopping place for foreign vessels, as the Maas is the great 
highway from the open sea to the Rhine and the interior of Europe. 

Beside all this shipping business, which includes the country products, many manu¬ 
factured articles, live stock, great ship-yards and steamboat factories, Rotterdam makes 
articles of gold and silver, and the gin and liquors distilled here are shipped in great, 
quantities by water or rail to all countries of the globe. The hall of the Rotterdam Ex- 



ROTTERDAM 

























































































































i6o 


Cities of the World. 


change is, at three o’clock, crowded with merchants and visitors of many nations. Ger¬ 
mans, Flemings, French, Italians, Spaniards, Armenians, Greeks, Poles, Russians, Eng¬ 
lish and Americans; and all of these, speaking at times in their native tongue, get greatly 
excited over advancing or declining prices. In all this excitement you would almost 
forget that you were in the land of the quiet, unruffled Dutchman, who would scarcely 
be startled enough to look around if a pistol were shot off directly behind him. Nearly 
all the “ nice ” houses have little mirrors at each side of the windows, that reflect in 
opposite directions so that, without stopping their work—for it is almost a sin to be idle 
in Holland—the people in the house can see all that is passing outside without being 
seen themselves. 

The buildings of Rotterdam seem not to have been put up to be handsome and 
majestic, but serviceable ; a few, however, are both. There are churches, schools of 
all kinds, and institutes for the study of art, science, architecture, music, medicine, and 
many other things. There are some galleries, too ; but the great pictures and works of 
art—once the pride of the town—were burned about twenty years ago, and can never be 
replaced. The hospital in the Coolsingel is a very fine and perfectly arranged building. 
The great St. Lawrence Church, with its high towers and Gothic pillars, raised in the 
fifteenth century, has a splendid organ and several beautiful marble monuments in honor 
of distinguished men. On the open market-place there stands a bronze statue of 
Erasmus, and on the street that leads to the Breede Kerk the famous scholar’s birth¬ 
place is still pointed out. Rotterdam is now growing very fast. It is about the size of 
Riga in Russia, Hull in England, or Cleveland, Ohio ; and has about a hundred and 
seventy-five thousand people living in it—more than twice as many as there were fifty 
years ago. 

Although Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, the Dutch Parliament meets 
at The Hague, and here also the king, his family, and the principal officers of the State 
live ; for this country has much the same form of government as Great Britain. It is ruled 
by a king or queen, according to the Constitution, and limited by a Parliament. The Hague 
is nearer the sea-coast than the other cities, and connected by railway with Amsterdam 
in the north-east and Rotterdam in the south-east. It is said to be one of the finest cities 
in Europe ; canals and shady avenues of linden-trees run in every direction, while beside 
stately houses, fine libraries, museums and churches there are grand parks and 
many palaces. One of these, the Mauritz Huis, has a splendid collection of 
pictures, including some of the most precious of the works of the old Dutch 
masters, and other interesting collections of various kinds. The Hague has 
twenty churches. The finest of all is the Great Church, built almost six 
hundred years ago. In its lofty six sided tower there is a chime of thirty-eight 
bells. Connected with the thrilling history of Holland and the Hague is the Gevangen- 
poort, or prison gate house, which has at different times confined many great men ; and 


Scheveningen. 


161 


the irregular drawbridge-guarded and moat-inclosed Binnenhof and the Buitenhof, a 
mass of public buildings, raised at different times and built by many different hands. The 
Hague is one of the best built and least Dutch towns in Holland. The French language 
is much spoken, and Parisian manners and customs, shops and society are very marked. 
Many of the streets are broad, brick-paved and bordered with trees. A number of 
tame stork6 are kept in a small house in the Fish Market and strut about there with a 
grand air of importance. The arms of the Hague are represented by a stork, and 
throughout the kingdom the bird is almost sacred ; it is never disturbed or injured ; to 
kill one is little less than a crime. Great pains are taken to induce them to build their 
nests in the roof of farm houses and on the edge of a gable or near the chimney of town 
dwellings. On the outskirts of the town is a noble forest, in the midst of which stands what 
the Dutch call 7 Huis in 7 Bosch , the House in the Wood. This is a royal palace, where 
some beautiful tapestry may be seen ; and many fresco works of the Antwerp painter, Peter 
Paul Rubens, who, with some of his greatest artist pupils, painted the ceiling and walls of 
several rooms in the House. The Hague is a fashionable town, supported chiefly by 
the court and nobility. It is also a busy manufacturing place, in all the trades belonging 
to book making, carriage building, cabinet work, rope spinning and dressing leather. 
Scheveningen, the old port and fishing village on the North Sea, a favorite bathing 
place, is reached from the Hague by a broad causeway, bordered with rows of trees. 
The suburbs of the town have many beautiful country seats. There is nothing a Dutch¬ 
man sets more value on than a country seat, which is generally a brightly painted 
wooden house—called a summer house or garden house—with carefully laid out gardens 
and a fish pond. Ryswick, where the treaty of peace was made in 1697, is not far off, 
and on the way to Rotterdam is the famous town of Delft, where the first European 
crockery table ware was made. 

The oldest city of the Netherlands is Utrecht, which was built by the Romans and 
is now about the size of Richmond, Virginia, with over seventy thousand people. 
It lies about twenty-five miles south-east of Amsterdam, surrounded by a beautiful and 
cultivated country, of woods, hills, meadows and orchards, through which railways run 
in many directions from the city, while the Old Rhine and River Vecht connect it with 
other cities and provinces of the continent. Thus favorably situated for trade, Utrecht 
plays an important part in the Dutch commerce, especially with grain, cattle, and its 
manufactures, which are principally woolens, plush called “ Utrecht velvet,” carpets, 
furniture, baskets, tin, copper and silver work, sawing wood, rope-making, iron founding 
and book printing ; besides making salt, and large quantities of tobacco and cigars, 
which last are the leading industries of the place. 

Here, also, good people have built homes and hospitals for those who are not able to 
take care of themselves. The handsome houses of many noble Dutch families stand in 
Utrecht, and there are besides, a high military court, the Mint and other important 


162 


Cities of the World. 


national institutions. The “Pope’s House,” built by Adrian VI., who was born in 
Utrecht in 1459, is the building used for government offices. The “ Domkerk ” is a fine 
old cathedral, consecrated to St. Martin about the year 720. The body of the building 
was destroyed by a hurricane about two hundred and fifty years ago, and is now a ruin, 
leaving the great tower, which is over three hundred feet high, standing alone. 

Utrecht is famous in history as the place where the union of the northern provinces 
called “the Netherlands” was foimed in 1579; and in this place the great peace 
treaty of 1713 was signed by ambassadors from nearly every country of Europe. It has 
always been noted for education. The grand old University was founded here in 1636, 
and there are also many fine common scnools, special academies and societies for train¬ 
ing teachers, military surgeons, musicians and students in a great many branches of 
learning, especially science. The ancient walls which used to surround the city have 
been leveled and made into beautiful tree-planted walks and carriage ways. 

The most famous educational town of Holland is Leyden, of a little more than forty- 
two thousand people, and about the size of Wilmington, Delaware. 

It is low and flat, with many canals, broad streets, and handsome squares. Studded 
with windmills it stands amid beautiful meadows on the bank of the Old Rhine. 

William of Orange founded the University, whither students from all parts of Eu¬ 
rope have come for more than three hundred years, calling it the “Athens of the West.” 
Here the great chemist, Cuneus, discovered how to gather electricity in what is called 
the Leyden jar. The Pilgrims from England lived in this old town for ten years before 
they came to America. 

Haarlem, directly west of Amsterdam, three miles from the sea, is a town noted for 
cleanliness, even in the clean country of Holland. It is about the size of Utica, New 
York, the home of more than forty-three thousand people. In the nursery gardens on 
the outskirts, large quantities of tulip and hyacinth bulbs are raised, which by railway 
and canal are shipped to all parts of Europe, along with a great deal of woven goods 
made in the town. St. Bavo’s Kerk, built in the fifteenth century, is the finest of Haar¬ 
lem’s thirteen churches, and the largest in the Netherlands. It has a lofty tower, and 
one of the most immense organs in the world. From the roof of this cathedral hang 
quaint little ships, under full sail, models of old Dutch galleons, placed there as offer¬ 
ings by sailors starting on long voyages. In the square before the church is a marble 
statue of Laurenz Coster, the inventor of printing, the Dutch say. The Museum has a 
splendid collection of paintings, visited by the greatest artists in the world ; and in the 
Town Hall, long ago the residence of the Counts of Holland, are some fine carvings. 
These, with the palace of the States-General and many of the educational and charitable 
buildings, are well worth seeing. The beautiful pleasure-grounds near the city are 
known as the Woods of Haarlem. In the sixteenth century the overflowing of the sea 
made a great lake fourteen miles long and ten broad, between this town and Amster- 





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164 


Cities of the World. 

dam. After twelve years’ labor with steam pumps, the Dutch succeeded in draining 
this off, and in 1850 the work was done, and the bottom of Haarlem Lake is now a 
country of rich farms and the home of about ten thousand people. 

Haarlem is noted in history for its heroic defense against the Spaniards in the seven- 
months siege of 1572, when even the women formed a company of three hundred sol¬ 
diers. But it was all in vain. The town had to surrender after the last mouthful of 
food was gone, and the faithless Spaniards broke their promise and put the people to 
death. 

In Holland, winter is perhaps the most welcome of all seasons. Directly the ice 
bears there is an army of skaters and"Sledgers appears ; visits are made and distances 
traveled over canal and river, which can not be done in Summer ; few American boys 
and girls know any thing of such ice sports and winter fun as are then abroad ; the 
Dutch do not go round and round a lake, or up and down certain stretches of a stream, 
but make up parties and pay visits to some neighboring towns or villages. The bracing 
air of a bright Winter morning rosies the faces of many a gay little Dutch company out 
for the day. After a severe frost some of the rivers or large canals flowing through the 
cities, are a perfect show, like a great fancy fair, with thousands of skaters in their Dutch 
costumes, gliding in and out, among sledges, ice-boats, stalls and booths. When all the 
water-ways about a city are frozen the trek-schuit—or drag-boat—traffic gives way to 
sledges, large and small. “ Near dwelling houses are seen little box-sledges for the chil¬ 
dren. These are precisely the same as the seventeenth century contrivances ; the child 
sits with just room for its feet, and, with stick in each hand, pushes astern and propels 
itself ahead. Some of the sledges for grown up folks are of many different shapes, some 
of them are gorgeously fitted up with most picturesque gear, harness and trappings. 
They are generally of the swan-like shape, the ‘ sleighers ’ sitting in the body, the driver 
perched at the back, as on the tail, the sweeping-irons following the curve of the swan’s 
neck; over these run the reins.” One horse is all that is usually driven before a sledge ; 
but a particularly sumptuous equipage, requiring more would have them in tandem. 


BELGIUM. 


T HE country of the Belgians is almost the size of the State of Maryland, and, be¬ 
tween Holland and France, occupies a gradual slope from the hilly districts of north¬ 
ern Germany to the level shore of the North Sea. It is free and independent, surrounded 
by some unloving and mighty neighbors. The nation is made up of both Keltic and 
Teutonic people ; more than half speak the Flemish tongue, but the language of the 
Court and nearly all the people of the high class is French. According to the size of the 



country there are more people in Belgium than any where in the world, excepting the 
island of Malta. 

Brussels, the capital, stands not far from the center of the Belgian territory, in 
the midst of a beautiful and fertile country ; it is picturesquely built on the top and 
sides of a hill, which slopes down to the Senne, at about fifty miles from the sea. Around 
the original town there are extensive new districts ; but the old city is the most import¬ 
ant. It is pentagon-shape, with a labyrinth of short, straight or curved streets, cut 
through here and there by a long avenue or irregular square, and bounded by boulevards 






























166 


Cities of the World. 


which occupy the site of the old fortifications. On fine summer evenings the northern 
and eastern sections of the boulevards are thronged with carriages, riders, and walkers, 
who make a gay and animated stream, which under the grand old trees on the south-east, 
usually flows into the Avenue Louise on its way to the Bois de la Cambre. This is a 
beautiful park which is the Bois de Bologne of “ Little Paris,” as Brussels is often called. 
The Cambre is one-fifth the size of Bologne, as Brussels has a little more than one-fifth 
as many people as Paris ; but beyond lies the Forest of Soigne, which is much grander 
and more extensive than any suburban wood of the French capital, even Fontainebleau. 
In many respects Brussels suffers by comparison with other great cities ; the Senne is a 
wretched little stream ; but this is now arched over, and flows unseen beneath a long 
line of boulevards above it, running the longest way through almost the center of the 
inner city. The main part of the city is within the five-sided figure anciently described 
by the ramparts ; beyond there are residences, broad and regular streets with many tree- 
planted squares, and notable buildings ; but the center of life is within the lines. The 
pentagon is made up of two parts, each with characteristics of its own. The New Town, 
or upper part, occupying the south-east side, is dry, healthy, and contains straighter and 
broader streets than the Old Town, with the great boulevards and a number of sump¬ 
tuous houses and private offices, foreign ministries, and extensive hotels. There are 
innumerable fountains, some of which are handsomely ornamented with sculptures in 
stone and bronze. The streets are macadamized ; but the most of them are causewayed ; 
with sidewalks or trottoirs —the language of Brussels is French—either flagged or 
paved with flint-stones. Some of the streets are remarkably handsome, with shops 
and cafes much like those of Paris. Many of the squares are used as market-places. 
Adjoining the boulevard that separates the New Town from the aristocratic eastern 
suburb called the Quarter Leopold, is the Public Park. This fashionable summer resort 
is beautifully laid out with walks, along which you come upon groups of sculpture every 
little way, beneath the shady trees on the soft turf that is kept fresh and green. At 
the northern end almost the entire width of the Park is overlooked by the National 
Palace, where the Belgian Senate and the Chamber of Deputies hold their sittings ; at 
the end stands the Palace of the King, or Palais Royal, a handsome group of buildings 
with beautiful apartments and a number of ancient and modern pictures. The Rue 
Royale bounds the Park on the west, running along the margin of the height upon which 
the upper town stands. The traffic in this or any of the adjacent streets is not important, 
although there have been some attractive new shops opened here lately. The row of stately 
houses facing the Park is often broken by small terraces, over which you get glimpses of the 
lower town. But a better view is to be had from the beautiful Gothic cathedral of St. 
Gudule and St. Michel, a little beyond. This is one of the most imposing buildings in 
the capital; being surrounded by a boulevard and large open place, its rich walls, 
towers and chapels are open to the view. The paintings, stained glass, and wood 


Brussels. 


167 



carvings are very fine. The tower commands a beautiful view of the town as it descends 
rather abruptly toward the boulevards over the river. The Old Town is the most 
ancient and the most interesting quarter of Brussels ; the canals are many ; the streets 
are mostly narrow and somber, overhung with medieval houses that tell of ancient char¬ 
acteristics and early glory ; the whole is now devoted to industry and commerce ; the 
latter is not very large, but 
the manufactures of lace, 
furniture, bronzes, carriages, 
and leather articles are very 
important. The principal 
streets and the great streams 
of people always tend to¬ 
ward a common center in 
the very midst of the old 
town. It is the Grande 
Place, or market place, the 
liveliest and most crowded 
place in all the city ; around 
it are grand old buildings 
of the Middle Ages, and 
over it hover associations of 
the most important events 
in Brussels history. 

The florid, antique houses 
date from the Spanish pos¬ 
session ; and the majestic 
Hotel de Ville, “ with daring 
irregularity and inexhaustible 
combination of shapes and 
colors,” is one of the noblest 
and most beautiful buildings 
to be found in the kingdom. 

The ornamented and irregu- home work, Belgium. 

lar quadrangle, with ancient court inclosed, and graceful tower, three hundred 
and seventy feet high, was built in the first half of 1400 ; the elaborate niches 
are filled with statuettes, and on the open spire a gilded figure of the Archangel Michael 
tells all the town which way the wind blows. The decorations of the interior are so beau¬ 
tiful and so full of historical interest that the old Town Hall is one of the chief museums 
in the city. There are other exhibitions also that attract many tourists to Brussels. The 











Cities of the World. 


168 

Royal Belgian Museum is some distance to the south-west of the cathedral, and contains 
a valuable gallery of paintings, which has no equal in the country ; adjoining are the 
Royal Library and the Palace of Fine Arts, and near by several other sumptuous palaces 
extending to the Palais Royal; many stand on the Rue de Regence, which leads to the 
pride of the city, the great and grand Palace of Justice, which was opened in 1883, when the 
jubilee over Belgium as a separate kingdom was held. It is the largest architectural work 
of the nineteenth century, being considerably larger on the ground than St. Peter’s at 
Rome; it cost ten millions of dollars. The Royal Palace of Justice is near the Royal 
Museum. At the point of the pentagon, the old Porte de Hall marks the extremity of 
the inner town. This ancient-looking prison-house was built in 1381 ; “it was the Bas- 
tile of Alva during the Belgian Reign of Terror ; ” but its vaulted chambers and project¬ 
ing tower are now peacefully employed as a museum of weapons and antiquities. 

The stretch of country called Flanders occupies nearly the whole of Belgium between 
Brussels and the coast ; it is like one vast garden of naturally rich and fertile soil that has 
been under wise and careful tillage for centuries. There are so many people that the land 
has become cut up into many small portions,which,limited as they are, support an extremely 
prosperous race of small peasant farmers and villagers, the villages often numbering as 
many as eight thousand souls, who are busily engaged in almost every handicraft. “ The 
rich and picturesque dress of the people of Flanders is of medieval fashion ; the women, 
wearing long dark-hooded mantles, look something like nuns, except that the attire is 
more comfortable and comely, and is usually made siill more pleasing to see by valuable 
ear-rings and brooches set with genuine brilliants, old family heirlooms that tell the story 
of long generations of uninterrupted prosperity.” The principal outlet for products of 
Flanders and all other parts of Belgium, as well as some of Germany, is Antwerp. This 
is a great and a growing city now ; but the height of its power and glory was in the 
Middle Ages, especially after Columbus’s discovery of America, and the finding of a pas¬ 
sage through Europe to India. The centuries between then and now brought great 
changes to the great city ; but in these latter days it has once more, and this time peace¬ 
fully, advanced to prosperity. To-day it is one of the greatest European seaports, with a 
population of two hundred thousand, and a commerce up and down the river Escheldt 
that has increased faster since 1837 than that of any other place in Europe. It is now 
said to be almost equal to Hamburg and Marseilles. The “ lazy Schelde ” is a third of a 
mile broad at the city and very deep ; on its quiet surface there are always many vessels 
tugging at anchor or lining the docks, while hundreds, even thousands of workmen are 
busily loading and unloading many kinds of merchandise. There are steamers large and 
small, and sailing vessels of all descriptions here—ships, barks, and schooners, of 
American and English rig, or the heavier Dutch craft ; vessels from further north, riding 
the waves beside the lateen-sail boats of the south and east, all mingled in a fantastic 
group, flying the colors of many nations. The country should ever be indebted to 


TOWN HALL, BRUSSELS. 




























































































































































































































































































































































































































170 Cities of the World. 

Napoleon for the acres of majestic ports and miles of noble docks which make up and 
line this harbor ; and among all the ports to which the great transatlantic liners enter, 
they rarely, if ever, rest by finer or busier quays than those of Antwerp. On one of these 
quays stands the sculptured Gate of the Escaut (another name for the Schelde), 
which was designed by Peter Paul Rubens. The docks lie at the northern end of the 
town, and are quite distinct from the quays. Their two hundred and fifty acres are 
usually filled with large steamers and merchantmen, receiving or discharging cargoes by 
the means of gigantic and noiseless hydraulic cranes, which are worked by underground 
water power. Immense bales and boxes of goods are carried by the cranes directly from 
the vessels to the railway trucks, of which about twenty-five hundred leave Antwerp 
every day for different parts of Europe. Around the docks stand large warehouses, with 
powerful steam elevators for raising merchandise to the lofty stores. The largest of these 
buildings is the Entrepot Royal; but the most interesting is the Maison Hanseatique, or 
Hanseatic House, a massive and venerable magazine, almost three hundred and fifty 
years old. This was a great warehouse of the Hanse-cities in the days of the Hanseatic 
League, when that famous trade union was mistress of nearly all the commerce of 
Europe. It bears even now the armorial bearings of the three cities of the League, 
with the inscription in Latin : “ The warehouse of the German Hanse, protected by the 
Holy Roman Empire.” In 1863 the Hanseatic towns ceded it to Belgium for all river 
dues that could be demanded from their vessels. The best harbor view is from the 
VlaamschHoofd or Tete de Flandre, a fortress on the left bank of the river, opposite the 
Gate of the Escaut, in the center of the river front. Along the river lies the old town, 
whose ancient double ramparts you can trace in the two parallel sets of boulevards or 
avenues that form a regular and gentle curve above the river ; beyond lies the new city, 
covering about six times as much territory, and with it forming almost a perfect half- 
round on the right bank of the stream. Always a famous citadel, Antwerp has a fine 
new set of fortifications now, with massive bastioned walls, detached forts, and great 
moats, making a grand semi-circular sweep all the way around the land sides of the 
city. It is the principal arsenal of the kingdom, and, in case of need, will be the 
rendezvous of the Belgian army. It would take fully a hundred and seventy thousand 
enemies to conquer it under siege, and the inhabitants could live for a year cut off 
from outside supplies. 

Antwerp is the most interesting town in Belgium, and, as the people are nearly all 
Flemish, it is much like a Dutch, or a German city, but with one great difference ; no 
one would accuse Antwerp of the Dutch cleanliness. In place of the high but narrow 
houses, common in the Netherlandish cities, there are here older and often more preten¬ 
tious structures ; the streets and sidewalks are built with the smooth Belgian pave¬ 
ment, and between rows of costly modern buildings there are many lines of American 
horse-cars. No Dutch'or German galleries have any Flemish pictures to compare with 



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Cities of the World. 


172 

Antwerp’s wonderful works of Peter Paul Rubens, which, alone, draw hundreds of 
people every year. Every other attraction in the city is second to the majestic old 
cathedral where these gems of art are kept. “ The glory of the Cathedral of Antwerp 
is in the great paintings which it enshrines.” There are three in all, “ The Assumption,” 
and two others—still greater—representing the Saviour’s “ Descent from the Cross,” and 
the “ Elevation of the Cross.” A celebrated writer says, These are paintings whose 
treatment, like their subject, is divine, and although the “ Descent ” is generally thought to 
be Rubens’s masterpiece, they are worthy of each other. “ In the Elevation of the Cross 
our Saviour has been nailed to the fatal tree, which the Roman soldiers are raising to 
plant in the earth. The form is that of a living man. The hands and feet are stream¬ 
ing with blood, and the body drops, as it hangs, with all its weight on the nails. But the 
look is one of life and not of death. The face has an expression of suffering, yet not of 
mere physical pain. The agony is more than human ; as the eyes are turned upward, 
there is more than mortal majesty in the look,—it is the dying God. In the Descent 
from the Cross, the struggle is over: there is death in every feature, in the face, pale 
and bloodless, in the limbs that hang motionless, in the whole body as it sinks into the 
arms of the faithful attendants. If Rubens had never painted but these two pictures, 
he would deserve to be ranked as one of the world’s great masters.” They dignify the 
plain whitewashed interior of the cathedral; they honor the city in which they rest ; 
and even make the country famous as the land where the great Rubens lived, worked, 
and died, though he was born in Cologne. “ Out of meanness and dirt, the cathedral lifts 
its head toward heaven.” There is a view from the single finished tower, that costs about 
fifteen cents and a steady mount of six hundred and twenty-five stone steps to obtain it, 
but repays you with compound interest. “ The eye ranges over almost the whole of 
Belgium, a vast plain dotted with cities and villages.” In this lofty tower of open 
arches, which Napoleon said looked as if made of Mechlin lace, there hangs a chime of 
bells which ring out some soft, delicious melody every quarter hour, like heavenly music 
from the clouds. The roof below is supported by a hundred and twenty-five pillars, and 
beneath it are six aisles. There is no other church in Europe with so many. The 
church was founded in the Middle Ages, is of the handsome Gothic style, in the form of 
a cross, five hundred feet long, two hundred and fifty feet broad. There are only a few 
cathedrals more grand than this in the world ; but the shops that hedge it in, and back 
up against its walls, shamefully cover and mar its beauty. It stands adjoining 
the Place Verte , which is in the very heart of the old town, and the meeting place of 
an innumerable number of streets, among which are about half a dozen of the busiest 
and most important in Antwerp. Near the principal portal is the Well, the famous old 
fountain with its graceful iron-work canopy of Quinten Massys, “at one time a black¬ 
smith, afterward a famous painter,” as the inscription on his tombstone reads. Upon 
the short and ancient streets, running in every direction, from here toward the river and 



THE BELFRY, BRUGES 















































































































174 


Cities of the World. 


toward the boulevards, there stand most of the remaining celebrated buildings of Ant¬ 
werp. The Hotel de Ville in the Grand’ Place, close by the river, is imposingly built in 
stories of columns and arcades and circular arched windows ; it is almost bewildering 
inside with its colored Belgian marbles, its wood carvings, scenes in ancient Antwerp, 
and other paintings. The other buildings around the Grand’ Place, are mainly Guild 
houses or trades halls, which are peculiar to Belgian cities, and especially in Antwerp, 
Ghent, and Brussels, are among the most notable sights. They are grandly proportioned 
and richly decorated halls, once belonging to the proud guildes, or trade societies ; 
many of the buildings are still known by their old names, as the Guild Hall of the 
Archers, Hall of the Coopers, House of the Sailors, and the Hall of the Carpenters, all 
of which are at least two hundred years old, and many are nearly twice that age. With 
museums and fine public institutions, Antwerp is well supplied, and among the best 
streets running through the center of the old town toward the new, one of the most 
notable is the broad and handsome sweep of the Longue Rue Neuve , where the gay 
shops are richly stored and well patronized ; almost parallel with it is the Place de 
Meir , a broad avenue, formed by arching over a canal ; it is built up with handsome 
new houses, but also containing the Royal Palace, Rubens’s house and a few other par¬ 
ticularly fine old mansions. The inner set of parallel boulevards is very wide ; and 
shaded with rows of trees near the center of the city. Bordering on one of the outer 
“rings ” is the park, which is shaped like a perfect triangle and occupies the site of an 
old lunette, with the moats made into a large and ornamental sheet of water. There is 
a charming view from the high chain bridge crossing this lake. To the west and the 
north-west is the old town, skirting the river, with all the most quaint as well as many of 
the most imposing buildings—churches, museums, hospitals, and barracks, among less 
pretentious houses. On the north these old and the newer quarters are skirted by the 
great inclosed docks ; on the south-west are large schools and exhibition buildings, with 
many of the military institutions, while on the south of the triangle-shaped park lies the 
most openly built part of the city, with several long, fine avenues, few of which run 
regularly, but meet in crescents, acute angles, obtuse angles and every shape except in 
even right angles. The east and north-east quarters are also occupied by many resi¬ 
dences, by the Zoological Gardens and churches ; the districts beyond the fortifications 
are laid out in avenues and streets, more sparsely settled. There are a few other parks, 
but the Belgian cities are not so richly supplied with pleasure grounds as Germany, 
nor even as well as France, although the people—much like the French in many 
things—are very fond of out-door life and use what parks they have to the best 
advantage. 

Beside these two leading cities of the “ land of belfries, town halls, stained glass 
and carved pulpits,” there are several others belonging to the world’s list of great 
cities. 



TOWN HALL, YPIES 
































































































































































































176 


Cities of the World. 


Ghent was the most populous city of Europe in the Middle Ages, and has now 
about a hundred and thirty-five thousand people, who are chiefly occupied in the great 
cotton-spinning factories, the largest and finest in the kingdom. Liege, with a hundred 
and twenty-six thousand people, is also feeling a return of bygone prosperity, and is now 
the center of the Belgian iron industry; Bruges (forty-five thousand people) is a town 
“ whose splendid garments are too large for its shrunken body,” and can only tell in 
a mute way of past magnificence ; Mechlin, or Malines, with about the same popula¬ 
tion, famous for lace, is now the railroad center of Belgium ; Louvain, too, of thirty-six 
thousand people, is celebrated for having had the greatest university in Europe in the 
sixteenth century. 



THE PIERS AT OSTEND. 










SWITZERLAND. 



T HIS small country of Europe is about half the size of the state of Indiana with a 
third more people. It is a sturdy, independent little republic, occupying the highest 
land of Europe, grandly protected by the Juras and the Alps from the larger and 
more powerful nations of Germany on the north, Austria on the east, France on the west 
and Italy on the south. The southern 


portion of the country is the most beautiful 
and mountainous district in the world ; 
there is a broad and lovely plain above, 
extending to the Juras in what are called 
the Swiss Lowlands. Here lie the prin¬ 
cipal cities. There are not many, and 
although they are all more or less famous, 
none rank among the first of the world’s 
great cities. The largest town in Switzer¬ 
land is Geneva. It stands on both sides 
of the southern end of Lake Leman, where 
it narrows to a point and ends as it began 
in the river Rhone. A breakwater forms a 
safe harbor for the many steamboats run¬ 
ning between this and various other im¬ 
portant places on the lake. The swift 
rushing Rhone flows through the city in 
two branches forming two islands, which 
with the two large divisions also are con¬ 
nected by several wooden bridges and a 
very fine stone bridge. One of these 
islands is a small public pleasure ground, 
where there is a bronze statue of Jean 
Jacques Rousseau, “who first made Leman 
and the Rhone beautiful in literature, and 
so in the eyes of the world.” The island 
is named after the great Genevese author ; 
it is described as “ just large enough 
Lombardy poplars, and to form in its 


THE JUNGFRAU FROM INTERLAKEN, 

IN THE ALPS. 

to hold the statue and two or three 
se an inclosure for a large and quar- 










i 7 8 


Cities of the World ’ 


relsome colony of swans.” On the second island stand “tall old-fashioned 
houses of workmen and washerwomen, that form a part of the St. Gervais 
quarter of the city, or the Geneva of the right shore.” This is an antique 
and picturesque quarter backed by a range of snow-capped mountains, with Mont Blanc 
looming up still higher forty miles away in a straight line. The washerwomen are an 
odd sight. “ They pound and rinse their clothes in plain view of all comers every week¬ 
day in the year in the covered boats anchored by the banks of the Rhone ; the water 



THE LAKE AND CITY OF GENEVA. 


rushes past them swift and pure ; behind them are the old Savoyard houses, almost pre¬ 
historic in their quaintness. The old town occupies but a small part of the present city, 
with its “ tall, queer houses, standing thick and dingy, one looking over the others' 
shoulders as they crowd upon the hillside. The chimney pots reach out over the tiles 
in all sorts of angles and tilting with the sky as you look up, and mark the towers of the 
old cathedral of St. Peter, and the Hotel de Ville, rising from their midst.” The Cathe* 
dral was raised in 1124, and around it centered the medieval history of Geneva—there 














Geneva. 


179 

the words of the wonderful invalid John Calvin rung out for the first time and spread 
abroad till now they guide the religious opinions of fifty millions of people. 

“ The building inside or out is not imposing ; the classic fa£ade dates only from the 
eighteenth century, for the statues and many other beauties were swept away by the 
reformers ” ; but within it is very much as Calvin left it, over three hundred years ago. 
“ The canopy of the pulpit from which he preached, and the chair in which he sat when 
others preached, the front seats with the names of the old pastors and the other seats 
bearing the names of the old Genevese families, all are there as when the city was Cal- 
vanistic Rome, the school and printing press of Protestant Europe, the refuge of 
reformers, a center of energy and activity in the making and spreading abroad of Bibles 
or martyrs that has probably never been equaled in the history of the world. The cathe- 



MEMORIAL HALL OF THE REFORMATION, GENEVA. 


dral has been the forum—or center of city life—as well as the sanctuary of Geneva ; 
there year after year the citizens have assembled in general council, elected their magis¬ 
trates and voted their laws.” Next to this in historical importance, and surpassing it in 
architecture is the Hotel de Ville with its quaint squat tower, about which zigzags a 
wide paved carriageway up to the different stories of the building ” containing the 
various chambers used as the seat of the cantonal government, which in Switzerland 
corresponds to our state legislatures, for the management of the Swiss cantons is 
much like our states government. Here on certain days of the week the magistrate 
performs the civil marriage, which must legalize all unions. In front of the 
building, the remains of the old ramparts form a handsome terrace, from which there is a 





















i8o 


Cities of the World. 


fine view of the Plainpalais and the valley of the Rhone and Arve. Across the street 
from the Hotel de Ville is an arsenal, or rather a museum of old arms and armor, where 
some of the spikes, petards, and scaling ladders captured at the famous Escalade—the last 
struggle of Geneva with the dukes of Savoy, in 1602—are shown. A fountain in memory of 
this victorious event stands at the bottom of the crooked street leading from the Hotel de 
Ville to the Rhone. It is the street in which Rousseau was born and is called the 
Grande Rue . During the past thirty or forty years Geneva has been altered and 
improved very much. The ancient ramparts have been taken down, the narrow, close 
streets widened and well-paved, and new and spacious quays have been built along the 
lake and river. One of the favorite resorts is the English Garden, a promenade laid out 
along part of the new quay on the left side of the river. In the plain into which the 
new city is spreading a botanic garden has been laid out, and the Mus£e Rath, or Rath 
Museum, and other fine looking buildings for the use of science and art have been 
raised. 

The fame of Geneva’s watch-makers is world-wide. Above the washerwomen’s sheds 
there is a square tower, known as the Tower of Caesar. It stands almost in the center of 
the city and after all its thrilling history is now the home of a peaceful watch-maker* 
and serves with its three dial faces standing in a row and looking toward the water, to 
tell at once the time of Paris, Geneva, and Bern. On all sides, especially toward St. 
Gervais, it looks down on the homes of a great hidden army of watch-makers. Out of 
the city’s population of about seventy thousand there are about five thousand men—over 
one third of the male inhabitants—constantly engaged in making watches, while two or 
three thousand more are employed in making musical boxes. The remainder are mostly 
jewelry workers. These three industries are the chief occupations of the people. 

It is supposed that about one hundred and fifty thousand watches are made in 
Geneva every year. The work is separated into two departments, the watch-makers 
and the case-makers. There are no very large factories, and all the men usually 
work at home. Where a quaint old house reaches out for light high above the dinginess 
of its narrow court you may be sure that it contains the work room of some watch-maker, 
or engraver, some case-maker or enameler. Geneva is a remarkably well-governed 
place ; you only see policemen when they are needed ; every one who takes up his 
home here can share in the freedom, and, whether he is liked or not, he is undisturbed 
so long as he is quiet. There are always many exiles in Geneva,—aliens for right or for 
wrong,—but there are no foreign beggars here, or any other kind in fact, for beggars are 
not allowed. Altogether this little city, which has ever stood well in the eyes of the 
world, “ was never more prosperous nor more deserving of her position of honor than at 
present.” 

There is one set of inhabitants that always have a great many visitors ; they are the 
eagles of Geneva. There are six of the great birds kept in a large double cage, par- 



STREET SCENE, BERN 































































































































































































182 


Cities of the World. 


tially overhanging the river. They are the property of the city, and like the bears of 
Bern, are kept at the public expense. The eagles occupy, like Bern’s bears, a pictorial 
position in the shield of Geneva, and if one dies another is procured to take its 
place. 

The second town and the wealthiest of the country, is the trading city of Basel, oi 
Bale. The entire place, including great Bale on the south side of the Rhine, and little 
Bale on the north bank, has only about sixty thousand people now, though in the middle 
ages it was very large and important. You would not think as you pass through its clean 
streets and among its well built houses that it is the richest city of this thriving republic ; 
but if you were a close observer you would soon recognize its prosperity, when you 
visited the fine schools, hospitals and places provided for orphans, and unfortunate people 
who are deaf, dumb and variously afflicted. For the use of the city and the celebrated 
university, there are some unusally good museums with coin collections, natural history 
cabinets, libraries, picture galleries and an attractive botanic garden. The university 
was a very important one during the Reformation. Erasmus and many other great 
scholars taught within its walls. Switzerland leads the world in its interest and atten¬ 
tion to education. One-fifth of all the money the government spends is on education 
and religion. An Austrian who is an authority, says : twenty per cent of the taxes 
paid by the Swiss are used to.improve the education, morals and religious sentiments of 
the population. Switzerland has one university for every four hundred thousand inhabi¬ 
tants ; all other European countries are in this far behind the little highland republic, 
which uses nearly fourteen per cent of its whole income to educate and train its young 
people, with splendid elementary and high schools, gymnasia and academies, universities 
and polytechnic institutes, all modeled upon the best of systems. 

The capital of Switzerland is Bern, the third city, with about forty-five thousand 
people. It stands on a lofty sand-stone promontory seventeen hundred feet above the 
sea. The winding Aar river surrounds it on three sides, and is crossed by two 
stone bridges, one of which is very handsome and adds a great deal to the natural 
beauties of the city. On the fourth side the old fortifications have been made into pub¬ 
lic walks. From a distance Bern is a fine, imposing looking city, and on nearer view is 
equally pleasing, with its quaint streets and handsome houses. These are massive free¬ 
stone structures and in some places built above arcades, in which the shops of the city 
are situated, lining the covered walks on both sides of the streets with their odd signs 
and showy windows. Whichever way one walks he is almost sure to find it lead to some 
pleasant public promenade, in full view of the snowy Alpine peaks, and even within the 
town the streets are pleasantly adorned with fountains and have fresh rills of water flow¬ 
ing through them. The Gothic cathedral, over four hundred years old, and several other 
buildings in Bern are of special interest ; the new Federal Council Hall is a magnificent 
structure, and the mint, the hospital, the university, libraries and museums are all a 


Bern. 


i 83 


credit to the capital. A favorite walk toward evening or on Sunday afternoon is to the 
bear pit, where these animals are kept and cared for at the public expense, after a custom 
that is centuries old. It is believed that the town was once the native home of bears, 
from which it was named Bern , meaning bear ; many traditions are told about them ; 
and throughout the place the figure of a bear is a familiar ornament. There are not 
large manufacturing industries at Bern ; gunpowder, firearms, leather, straw hats and 
paper are chiefly the articles made here ; while considerable outside trade is also carried 
on. The living is cheap, for the corporate property is so large that all the city expenses 
are paid from its income, and all the citizens are provided with fuel gratis and receive 
an annual distribution from the surplus. 

There is no coal to be had in Switzerland ; the forests that cover one-sixth of the 
whole country are of great importance. Wood cutting is one of the chief employments 
of the people, and some of the finest of wood work and wood carving is done there ; the 
mountain pastures and the meadows cover two-fifths of the land, and feed the herds 
and flocks, while silks and cotton are raised and manufactured in considerable quantities. 
Although Switzerland is inland its commerce, carried on across the lakes and up the great 
rivers, in proportion to the population, has long exceeded that of any other country on 
the continent. It sends out wood and charcoal, cattle, tallow, cheese and butter, silks, 
cottons, watches and jewelry, in exchange for metals used in making jewelry and watches, 
corn, salt, fruits and products that this mountainous country can not grow. There are 
excellent roads from one part of the republic to another, and approved modern steam¬ 
boats ply from place to place across the lakes. The steep mountains have been 
tunneled and the plains overspread from one end to the other with railways that make 
a complete network of communication closely connecting the numerous small towns and 
villages in all parts of the country. 


IRELAND. 


Among Americans the most widely known place in Ireland is the bold cliff-guarded 
harbor of Queenstown. It is not unlike the New York harbor, with Roche’s Point 
instead of the Narrows, and the circular bay beyond with its islands and hilly shores. 
It has anchorage for thousands of ships and is deep enough to admit the largest at any 



QUEENSTOWN. 


tide. “ At the head of the bay, in an almost straight line from the Point, is the town of 
square, white houses, built in terraces, on a wooded and heathery bluff.” It is a pretty 
sight of green and white, almost like some tropical scene, when the sun is shining. “ At 
the foot of the cliff and along the quays is a street of shops and taverns ; the higher 
terraces are principally dwellings, and the higher they are the better is the class to which 














Queenstown . 


185 

they belong ; the top ridge of all is crowned by a few beautiful palace-like villas. The 
town itself is a dull place, its use being very largely as a touching place for transatlantic 
steamers.” All the mail steamers between New York, Boston, and Philadelphia and 
Liverpool call at it whichever way they are bound, to receive and deliver mails ; vessels 
stop long enough for a great deal of business to be done by telegraph and writing, or a 
short trip to the lakes of Killarney ; it is an important emigrant station and landing 
place for tourists bound for the North. There are so many Americans in the town that 



LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 


it seems more a part of the United States than of Great Britain. The name of Queens¬ 
town was given in honor of the queen, when her majesty visited the port in 1850. Before 
this it was called the Cove of Cork, being situated but a short distance above the city of 
Cork. This has about eighty thousand people and is the third city of Ireland. Not¬ 
withstanding Father Prout’s praises of the “beautiful ” city, Cork is small in size, with 
uninteresting houses of old red sandstone, and untidy streets, though of considerable 
commercial importance and forever famous for Blarney Castle and the Blarney stone, 
which you must not fail to kiss whenever you go there, for it will give you the gift of 
eloquence in return for your salute. 


















i86 


Cities of the World. 



Belfast, the second city of the country, with its active, wide awake population ot 
three hundred and fifty thousand, is a very different place, and a seaport too. It has all 
the life and trade of Manchester and Glasgow, with far less smoke and dirt to obscure 
its outline of lofty and handsome buildings against the background of green hills. 
Along the extensive and well built quays lies the mercantile quarter, while the manu¬ 
factories stand on higher ground on the north and west of the city. Many villas are 

along the northern shores of the 
bay, and the White Linen Hall 
quarter is made up of well built 
and spacious streets, always full of 
people, for Belfast is the chief center 
of trade and manufacture in north¬ 
ern Ireland. It is well situated for 
commerce, and is growing so fast 
that before long it may become the 
first city in Green Erin. Beside the 
staple industries of linen and cotton 


DONEGAL PLACE, BELFAST. 


making in all their branches, there are 
many houses employing thousands of 
hands in iron founding, flour and oil 
mills and other occupations, to fill the 
demands of shipping and outside trade. 

The exchange buildings are some of 
the most important in the city. The 
harbor has been improved very much 
lately, with many fine new docks and a 
tidal basin ; it now ranks among the 
best in Great Britain. The chief port of Ireland is at Dublin, the capital, which is not 
only a very important city but a beautiful one as well. 


CASTLE PLACE, BELFAST. 


Surrounded by grand mountain scenery, it stands on slightly rolling ground, much 
of it reclaimed from the sea, with the “ watery highway ” of the Liffey dividing it almost 
in the center, before emptying into Dublin Bay. The favorite drive of the Dubliners is 






















Dublin, 


1 87 



the Circular Road, which makes a circuit of nearly nine miles around the city, inclosing 
its widely contrasting quarters, where live the high and low, the rich and poor of a 
strangely broken nation. The river runs from west to east and is the main highway of 
:he capital. The north-east and south-east quarters are occupied by the aristocracy, 
with lofty houses overlooking beautiful squares, lining the splendid streets or standing 
upon terraces above them. Dublin is famous for its squares ; there are a great many, 
always large and well kept, and often 
embellished with statuary. Stephen’s 
Green, the largest, covers twenty 
acres, and is about a mile around; 
and Merrion square, more elegant 
and aristocratic, is thirteen acres in 
size. The most imposing thoroughfare 


THE FOUR COURTS, DUBLIN. 


is Sackville street, which is a hundred and twenty feet broad ; it begins at Rutland Square 
in about the center of the upper town and from the beautiful building of the general 
Post Office, leads the way, with many a handsome edifice and noble monument, to the 
river and the Carlisle Bridge, which is the finest of the many that connect the two towns 
of the Irish capital. A continuation of the handsome street leads to the large park or 
square of the Trinity College and University, which forms a triangle whose point is al¬ 
most at the foot of the Bridge. This is in the center of the city, which vies with the 
north-west quarters in the style of its great emporiums of trade. In many of the shop- 




























188 


Cities of the World ’ 


windows you can see magnificent quantities of rich linens and damasks, and lustrous 
pieces of the famous Irish poplins, made nowhere else in the world. There are many 
residences of the middle class of people here, while in the “ Liberties,” or the south-west 
division, the narrow, crooked streets are filled with huts and shanties, which are the 
homes of thousands of the most squalid and degraded sons and daughters of the Emerald 



CUSTOM HOUSE, DUBLIN. 

Isle. The Phoenix Park, which became of familiar name soon after the murder of Lord 
Cavendish and Mr. Burke, adjoins the north-western portion of the city. It is more than 
twice the size of Central Park in New York City and is a great and popular recreation 
ground, where military reviews, polo matches, and fine games of cricket are often held. 
The name is said to have come from the word feiniski , or clear water, there being a 
mineral spring in the neighborhood. The People’s Garden is a small part of the Phoenix 
Park, toward the City Gate ; it is laid out with flower gardens and promenades and is 
visited by all classes of people. 







SCOTLAND. 


T HE famous land of Bruce and Wallace, of Scott and Burns, is associated with a thou¬ 
sand thrilling stories in legend and in history. Scotland is divided into two distinct 
portions ; the Highlands of the North are occupied by the Keltic or Gaelic races, while 
in the South the descendants of the ancient Teutons possess the Lowlands. Herein are 
the centers of culture and industry, the largest cities and richest country. The most 
celebrated city is Edinburgh, the largest, Glasgow. 

Edinburgh is the capital of 
Scotland, and stands in a most 
prominent position on the slope 
and summit of three hills, 
dominated by the grand old cas¬ 
tle in the center. From here 
there is a view that takes in 
almost the entire city, and gives 
a better sight of the contrast 
between Old Edinburgh on the 
eastern ridg’e and New Edin¬ 
burgh above, than any other of 
the high and commanding points. 

The east of New Edinburgh is KEYS of the city, Edinburgh. 

guarded by a craggy mound 

called Calton Hill, whose base is encircled by broad roads of the town. “ You mount 
by stairs in a cutting of the rock to find yourself in a field of monuments, among which 
you see that of Dugald Stewart, Burns, and Lord Nelson, as befits a sailor, on the top¬ 
gallant of the hill. The old Observatory—a quaint brown building on the edge of the 
steep—and the new Observatory—a classical edifice with a dome—occupy the central 
portion of the summit. All these are scattered on a green turf, browsed over by some 
sheep. Immediately below is the famous old Cannon-gate Churchyard. From here you 
see almost the entire city, tilted by the inclination of the ground, each building standing 
out in delicate relief against the rest : a prospect full of change and of things moving.” 

The New Town surrounds the castle-hill, on all but the east and south-east sides, 
with its trim and regular streets, its gay and attractive gardens, its pillars, steeples, and 









































190 


Cities of the World. 


monuments; “the rest is the Old Town of bulky, endless-storied buildings, and steep 
descending closes ; it is a city that is set on a hill, grim and sooty among the fair and 
classic stretches of the newer quarters.” 

In the early days of danger, when Old Edinburgh’s walls were the only safeguard 
for the heads of the Scottish government, it became a place of great importance in the 
kingdom and grew so rapidly in population that every possible inch of room was used 
for houses, which soon rose to a height of from five to eleven stories, one side being 



EDINBURGH. 

often built against the natural ridges of rock ; throughout the whole city only one or two 
broad public thoroughfares were left, most of the houses having only steep paved lanes 
or “closes” between them. The main avenue, the backbone of this “ AuldReikie” as 
it has been called, led from the Grand Esplanade in front of the Castle, along the ridge 
to the Palace of Holyrood, or the Holy Cross. The first section of this famous old thor¬ 
oughfare is Castle Hill, which was the most aristocratic part of town a century and a half 
ago. Then comes the Lawn Market, continued by High Street, the broadest of the sec- 


















Edinburgh. i g i 

tions, and long Cannon Gate, at the end of which stand the ruins of Holyrood Abbey, 
with the palace beyond, 

“ A deserted palace where no monarch dwells ! ” 



The grand old pile, once the home of the Scottish kings and the fair, unfortunate 
Marie Stuart, stands almost the same as when the beautiful queen lived here ; it is a 
museum palace now, although the 
royal apartments are occasionally 
occupied. The Queen’s Park lies 
around the Palace, and to the south¬ 
ward “ the high belt of semi-circular 
rocks called Salisbury Crags,” rises 
“ by knoll and rocky bulwark and 
precipitous slope to the top of 
Arthur’s Seat.” On this great hill the 
grandly rugged Crags are toward the 
west, and the fabled knoll of Arthur’s 
Seat is on the south, towering over 
eight hundred feet above the Firth of 
Forth—on which the port of the city 
stands. The Queen’s Drive round 
the hill and the rifle ranges in the 
valley have carried every-day life and 
society to the spot now ; but for ages 
it stood in the grandest solitude 
almost in the midst of the “ busy and 
stormy capital.” Sir Walter Scott* 
whose beautiful monument is on 
“ merry Princes Street ” in the New 
Town, used to wander over this 
lonely spot, and loved “ that wild 
path winding around the foot,” and 
the view from the heights above 
“ commanding a close-built, high-piled city, stretching itself out in a form like a dragon.” 
Sublime he called it; and full of sublime associations he and others have left it for us. 
The heart of Old Edinburgh, where John Knox and Cromwell, David Hume, Boswell, Dr. 
Johnson and hundreds of other great men and women lived, lies directly between the Salis¬ 
bury Crags and the Castle. In the midst of the dense labyrinth rise the stately old 
college and university buildings, among the most famous in Europe, and the Royal 


ROYAL EXCHANGE, EDINBURGH. 




















192 


Cities of the World. 


Infirmary and the extensive Industrial Museum. Above, on High Street, are the long 
and picturesque Parliament House, Union Bank, Sheriff’s Court House, Signet Library 
and County Hall, all dominated by the lofty spire and beautiful Gothic walls of St. 
Giles Cathedral. This is the view of “ Stately Edinburgh, throned on crags.” “ Beautiful 
exceedingly, in the gray morning, in the garish noon-day, and in the golden evening, 
* * * sublime in the summer afternoon ; and grandly solemn by night when the 

enormous masses of buildings are illuminated by countless lamps that only make the 
darkness visible.” When the moon is up, its slender spires and Gothic towers are 
transformed into long streaks of silver light rising here and there out of oceans of 

massive shadow, while clear and bold against the sky 
the venerable castle of strength broods over all. In 
whatever light and at any point the vision of this 
acropolis is the most alluring sight of all. On all 
sides but one the rock is bare and rises almost per¬ 
pendicular out of the town, with the great buttresses 
and stone parapets, the walls, batteries and massive 
round tower of the castle occupying the highest plat¬ 
form. Mons Megs and its celebrated artillery com¬ 
mand a height almost four hundred feet above the 
sea. “ Frowning like the brow of some colossal Gor¬ 
don,” some one says ; but to me it seems like a 
grave but tender guardian, preserving the regalia and 
great relics of the kingdom, while keeping watch guard 
over all its capital. 

In the view from the Castle, “ half Scotland 
stretches around ; on the south, the blue bulk of the 
Pentland Hills ; on the north, the green, gnarled, 
round-headed Ochils, with the Firth flowing between ; 
bank of Scotland, Edinburgh, and on the extreme far north-west, the hills of Rob 

Roy’s country, Ben Lomond, Ben Ledi, Ben Voirlich, 
and the rest, lifting up their kingly foreheads ; seaward are Inchkeith, the Bass, North 
Berwick, Law and the Leith ; eastward, the Lion of Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags,” 
while close below the solid limestone of man’s rearing, in Edinburgh, old and new. 

Much of Edinburgh’s wealth comes from its banks and insurance offices ; but, except¬ 
ing the distilleries, ale and beer breweries, many of which are in the vicinity of Holyrood— 
printing and book publishing houses, and manufacturing of coaches, India-rubber articles 
and a few other things, the city is quite unimportant in industries ; it is famous for literary, 
artistic, scientific, law and medical institutions and associations, and its good society. 
Many of the Scottish landed gentry have fine residences here. There are about two 







Glasgow. 

o 


193 


hundred and fifty thousand people living in it, 
while in C lasgow there are more than twice as 
many, or five hundred and twenty-five thousand. 
The port of the river Clyde, the city encircled by 
hills and uplands with its shipping, its tall chim¬ 
neys and two million spindles, is strikingly a city 
of the present. 

The old part of the town is level and lies 
along the river banks, but in the last seventy years 
it has increased to five times its former size, and 
now stretches up to the rolling ground of the 
northern part of the valley. This immense 
growth is due to the Clyde, which connects the 
city with a world-wide commerce, especially for 
the vast quantities of iron and coal abounding in 
the adjacent districts. It is a well-built and health- 



A FAMILIAR BIT OF EDINBURGH 
WEATHER. 



GLASGOW. 
































i 9 4 


Cities of the World, 

fully managed place, although acres upon acres are occupied by manufactories 
necessarily dirty and even noxious. There are many fine streets and noble buildings 
entirely devoted to business and always densely packed with busy people. There is the 
Cathedral, which was built in the twelfth century, and even compared with all the 
grandeur of Gothic Edinburgh is said to be the finest church of that architecture in 
Scotland. The University, too, is a celebrated place, with its twelve hundred students 
and ancient buildings, founded in T443. Glasgow impresses you as an enterprising, 
thrifty town ; the fame of its great docks and noble river, its large trade and enormous 
manufactories have spread all over the world ; part of its wealth is seen in commodious 
docks, warehouses and places of business, in comfortable homes, good schools and 
institutions, and pleasant park and pleasure grounds. Thousands of chimneys rear their 
heads above the roofs of cotton mills, glass-works, paper-mills, dye-works and engine- 
factories, but all are distanced by the smoke-stack of the St. Rollox chemical works ; 
these are the largest in the world, and this chimney is four hundred and fifty feet high, 
as tall as the great pyramid of Egypt. The ship-yards and steamer factories of Glasgow 
are so celebrated that the name of “ Clyde ” is often used for any great ship-yard, 
especially where iron vessels are made. Nearly all of the coarse linen of Great Britain 
comes from Dundee, which is a city of about a hundred and fifty thousand people, no 
larger than the coal city of Newcastle in England. It stands on the left bank of the 
broad Tay, ten miles from the North Sea. It has some splendid quays and many 
buildings that surpass those in larger cities, and its schools, public parks, charitable 
homes and hospitals show how good hearted and public spirited the people are. About 
the only important jute factories in the world are here, and form the cheapest textile 
fabrics made in Great Britain. The dry plants are imported from India and made into 
a great many things, from the coarsest kinds of bagging and sacking to very fine and 
beautiful carpets. 

The fourth city of Scotland is Aberdeen, which has about as many people as there 
are in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or a hundred and twenty-five thousand. This is the chief 
city and seaport of northern Scotland, a thriving and progressive place, doing much for 
the importance and benefit of its own people, and a large manufacturing and shipping 
trade for the world at large. Almost every little English and American girl has worn a 
“ round ” comb made in Aberdeen, and many of you have also seen or heard of its great 
linen mills. Our very best table-cloths and napkins come from here, and almost every 
Scotch lad has had his plaid and lassie her frock from the woollen mills along the river Dee. 
Paper, polished granite, cattle, grains, and preserved provisions and fish are also exported 
in large quantities. The old town, which was a royal burgh in the twelfth century, was 
mostly burned in 1336, and lies on the banks of the Don, about a mile above the present 
city, which was built up soon after the burning and called New Aberdeen. The oldest 
part of the celebrated University of Aberdeen is in the old town. 


SPAIN. 


T HE principal cities of Spain are the capitals of the sixteen kingdoms and principali¬ 
ties, which, when first united, formed the great Spanish monarchy under Ferdinand 
and Isabella. Each of these principalities has kept a certain independence and char¬ 
acteristics of its own to this day, although the country is now divided into new depart¬ 
ments, and instead of the old historic names, each is known from the name of its capital. 
Madrid is nearly in the center of the country, on the side of the almost waterless River 
Manzanares. The site was chosen for the capital by the Emperor Charles V., whose 
gouty limbs were more comfortable here than in the old capital of Valladolid, but none 
of his successors have been able to see any natural charms in the ill-situated and un¬ 
healthy city. For these, and many more disadvantages, gouty and phlegmatic, Charles 
has been held solely accountable during almost three centuries. Nevertheless, Madrid 
has become a great city of nearly four hundred thousand people now, and to every true 
Spaniard it has no equal in all the world. It is of circular shape, with a low wall hedging 
it in from the dry hilly and barren plateau which surrounds it. The center of the city, 
where strangers—free at last from the confusion of porters, guides, hackmen, guards and 
boys that welcomed them at the stations—draw their first breath and take their first inde¬ 
pendent view of the Spanish capital, is the Puerta del Sol , or the Gate of the Sun. “ It 
is a stupendous sight, an immense semi-circular square, surrounded by high buildings, 
into which open, like ten torrents, ten great streets, and from every street comes a con¬ 
tinuous, noisy wave of people and carriages, and every thing seen there is in proportion 
to the locality. The sidewalks are as wide as streets, the cafes large as squares, the 
basins of a fountain the size of a lake ; and on every side there is a dense and mobile 
crowd, a deafening racket, an indescribable gayety and brightness in the features, ges¬ 
tures, and colors, which makes you feel that neither the populace nor the city are 
strangers to you.” As you go about there are “ no great palaces nor ancient monu¬ 
ments of art; but there are wide, clean, gay streets flanked by houses, painted in livid 
colors, broken here and there by squares of a thousand different forms, laid out almost 
at random, and every square contains a garden, fountain,and statuettes. Some streets 
have a slight ascent,” so that you see the sky in the distance, as through a vista. The 
walls are covered for some distance with play bills ; in the shops and on every side 
there is an incessant coming and going ; the cafes, too, are crowded. There are some 
very splendid cafes in the Gate of the Sun, where the Moorish custom of calling waiters 
by two claps of the hands is kept up. Those who can afford it sip beer and wines ; but 
the lower classes “ sit down contentedly for a whole evening to a glass of azucarillo , a 


196 


Cities of the World. 


kind of sugared water, or to a snow lemonade. Another esteemed cooling beverage is 
a kind of cream made from pounded cypress root and then half frozen. The height of 
luxury is to order with this, at an added cost of some two cents, a few tubular wafers— 

fancifully named barquil - 
los, or little boats-through 
which the half-liquid re¬ 
freshment is sucked.” 
You see the plain Euro¬ 
pean dress everywhere in 
place of the bright pictur¬ 
esque national garments 
of other days, except 
among the peasants ; but 
all provinces are repre¬ 
sented in the capital in 
greater or less numbers, 
and perhaps the gay, 
fantastic costumes of the 
various localities are more 
picturesque than ever 
among the plainer clothes 
that modern fashion has 
given almost half the 
city-living world to wear. 
Churches “ smeared with 
gold and stucco and paint 
in tasteless extravagance ” 
are very numerous and 
nearly all devoted to the 
Roman Catholic religion. 
Other buildings and many 
of the entire streets 
through the middle and 
on the edges of the city 
look like Paris ; portions 
STATUE OF PHILIP iv., MADRID. have a resemblance to Bos¬ 

ton, Massachusetts, and bordering upon these parts there are narrow ways and 
much of the old Spanish architecture to be seen. One of the broad streets run¬ 
ning toward the southern outskirts is the Calle de Toledo , or Toledo street, “an 


























BULL FIGHTING 



























































198 


Cities of the World. 


old meandering mart full of mantles and sashes, blankets, guitars, flannel dyed 
in the national colors of red and yellow, basket work and wood work, including 
the carved sticks known as molinillos ■—little mills—with which the beverage of 
chocolate is mixed.” The donkey is at home in the narrow thoroughfares about here, 
and the stifling odors, which in the finer streets are somewhat scattered on the air, are 
here gathered in full force, especially in the dingy, unconventional and attractive little 
cafes. On the western side of the city several thoroughfares come together at the 
Square of the Orient, where arises the monument of Philip IV. in the midst of a 
garden surrounded by thirty colossal statues. Here are the Naval Museum, the Theatro 
—or theater— Real, the Royal Stables, and, more prominent than all, the Royal Palace 
with adjoining buildings of state and the royal collections ; between this grand pile and 
the river lie the Gardens of Moro, where the king usually takes his morning walk. The 
park of the city, the Madrid Park, is on the other side of town, lying along the eastern 
outskirts, while the favorite promenade of the people, the Prado, lies between. It is 
reached through the street Alcala, which is so wide that it seems almost like a rectangular 
square, dividing Madrid in half ; it runs from the Puerta del Sol toward the east, and ends 
in an immense plain, that extends all along the side of the city and contains gardens, 
walks, squares, theaters, bull-circuses, triumphal arches, museums, small palaces, and 
fountains. The Prado is a very broad avenue, not very long, flanked by minor avenues, 
which extend to the east of the city, at one side of the famous garden of the Buen retiro , 
and is shut in at the two extremities by two enormous stone fountains ; it is hedged in on 
the sides by thousands of chairs and hundreds of benches belonging to water and orange- 
venders, a class of people that seem to make up a large portion of the population. The 
most frequented part of the Prado is called the Salon del Prado. At the fashionable 
hour it looks like a gay festival. The upper northern continuation is called the prome¬ 
nade of Recoletos. This runs between a very long chain of little palaces, villas, 
theaters and new buildings painted in bright colors, on the left, while opposite nearly 
two miles of country places make up the “ smiling suburb of Salamanca.” 

As regards promenades, theaters and shows, Madrid is, without doubt, one of the 
first cities in the world. There are operas, comedies of all grades, from the elegant 
and aristocratic to the poorest and commonest; all are crowded. The most celebrated 
singers in the world make every effort to sing at the capital of Spain ; the artists there 
are sought after and feted ; the passion for music is the only one which equals that for 
bull-fights, which is the supreme, the national pastime of Spain. It is patronized by all, 
from the king to the poorest vender, and the espadas or matadores —the bull-fighters—are 
looked upon with admiration that from the warm-blooded Spanish nature is almost equal 
to idolatry in our eyes. “ In every crowd and cafe you see the tall, shapely, dark-faced, 
silent men, with a cool, professionally murderous look, whose enormously wide black hats, 
short jackets, tight trowsers and pig-tails of braided hair proclaim them chulos , or mem- 


Madrid. 


1 99 


bers of the noble ring. Intrepid, with muscles of steel and finely formed, the higher 
class of these professional fighters are the idols of the people. Songs are made about 
them, their deeds are painted on fans and people crowd around to see them in hotels or 
on the streets as if they were heroes or star tragedians.” Madrid is the seat of the bull¬ 
fighting art, and the circus here is the foremost of all places for the contests. The season 



NATIONAL DANCE. 

is opened in the spring and lasts till fall. The opening day of the bull-fights 
is said to be regarded as a far more important occasion than a change in the 
ministry of the government. The Bull Ring lies in the west of Madrid, and when 
the long-looked-for inauguration day arrives, people begin moving toward the spot fully 
three hours before the appointed time. The route is lined for a mile with omnibuses, 











200 


Cities of the World. 


tartanas, broken-down diligences and wheezy cabs moving along with files of pedestrians 
and the showy turn-outs of the rich, all finally getting into one great mass rushing to the 
scene of action. “ The mule-bells ring, whips crack, the drivers shout wildly as the 
vehicles dash by windows full of on-lookers, by the foaming fountains of the Prado and 
up the road to the grim Colosseum of stone and brick, set in the midst of scorched and 
arid fields.” The great ring within is surrounded by a vast amphitheater of terraced 
granite, around the top of which runs a gallery whose roof is supported by slender col¬ 
umns. The circus holds at least ten thousand people, and is divided into two parts : 
one is sunny, the other in the shade. The rich and aristocratic sit in shady seats and the 
boxes below the gallery, which cost more than the sunny seats, where the common people 
sit in a fantastic assemblage, with their gay dress and paper fans and parasols of red, 
yellow, purple and green. But the great and all-absorbing sight, as soon as the trumpets 
announce the grand entry, is in the arena, and there only. The colors of the fighters' 
costumes ; the bulls, and then the dash of the mad animals and the maneuvering of both 
bulls and espadas; the skill and the suspense, and the thrilling horror or depraved 
delight, these are the fight itself, which an artist with colors and canvas can partly pic¬ 
ture, but where words alone entirely fail. 

Barcelona, with only the Pyrenees above and the narrow arm of the Mediterranean 
on the east to separate it from France, is rather a seaport for French trade than a gen¬ 
uinely Spanish city. “ In appearance it is the least Spanish city of any place in Spain. 
There are large buildings, of which few are old ; long streets, regular squares, shops, 
theaters, great superb cafes, and a continuous coming and going of people, carriages 
and carts from the shore of the sea to the heart of the city, and from here to the distant 
quarters. A broad, straight street, called the Rambla, shaded by two rows of trees, 
crosses nearly the entire city from the harbor up. A spacious promenade, lined with 
new houses, extends along the sea-shore on a high walled dyke, in the shape of a terrace, 
against which the waves dash ; an immense suburb, almost a new city, stretches along the 
north, and on every side new houses break the old boundary lines, are scattered over the 
fields, on the hillsides, and extend in interminable lines as far as the neighboring villages. 
On all the surrounding heights rise villas, little palaces and factories, which appear 
one behind the other until they form a wreath around the city. On every side there is 
transforming and renovating and manufacturing—mainly machinery for ship-building and 
all kinds of iron work. The people work and prosper and Barcelona flourishes.” The 
greatest architectural sight in the city is the Gothic Cathedral, with bold towers, splendid 
jewel-like stained glass windows ; and the greatest living show is the Carnival. When this is 
in progress “ the streets are traversed by long processions, and giants, princes, Moors, war¬ 
riors, and a troop of figures dressed in yellow with a long cane in their hands, at the top 
of which is tied a purse that they poke under every one’s nose, into all the shop win¬ 
dows, even up to the balconies of the first floors of the houses, asking for alms.” One of 


Barcelona, 


201 


the most curious things in the Carnival is the masquerade of the children. “ It is the 
custom to dress the boys under eight, some as men, in the French style, in complete 
evening dress, with white gloves, great mustaches and long hair ; some as grandees of 
Spain, covered with ribbons and trinkets ; others as Catalan peasants, with cap and man¬ 
tle ; the girls as court ladies, amazons, poetesses, with the lyre and crown of laurel, and 
both, too, in the costumes of the various provinces of the state ; some as flower girls of 



MALAGA—PORT, QUAY, AND CATHEDRAL. 

Valencia, some as Andalusian gypsies, others as Basque mountaineers, altogether the 
oddest and most picturesque dresses that can be imagined.” Barcelona lacks great 
buildings of interest ; there are a few historic palaces ; “ several enormous Roman col¬ 
umns in the Street of Paradise stand in the midst of modern houses, surrounded by tor¬ 
tuous staircases and dark rooms ; but there are beauty and diversion in the fountains 











202 


Cities of the World. 

with rostral columns, pyramids, statues ; boulevards lined with villas, gardens, cafes, 
hotels ; a bull circus capable of holding ten thousand spectators ; a suburb which extends 
along a promontory that shuts in the harbor, built with the symmetry of a chess-board 
and inhabited by ten thousand sailors ; many libraries ; a very rich museum of natural 
history and a building containing archives, in which there is a very large collection of 
historical papers relating to Spain from the ninth century to the present day, that is, 
from the first Counts of Catalonia to the War of Independence.” 

“ The cafes of Barcelona, like almost all the cafes of Spain, consist of one immense 
saloon, ornamented with great mirrors and as many tables as it will hold, of which one 
rarely remains-empty for a single half hour during the day. In the evening they are so 
crowded that one is often forced to wait quite a time in order to procure even a little 
place near the door. Around every table there is a circle of five or six caballeros , with 
the capa over their shoulders (this is a mantle of dark cloth, furnished with a large 
hood), and in every circle they are playing dominoes. It is the favorite game of the 
Spanish. In the cafes from twilight you hear the dull, continuous, deafening sound, like 
the noise of hailstones, from thousands of markers, turned and returned by hundreds of 
hands, so that you would be obliged to raise your voice in order to make yourself heard 
by the person sitting near you. People drink chocolate, most delicious in Spain, generally 
served in little cups ; it is thick almost like preserves, and hot enough to burn one’s 
throat.” Altogether this un-Spanish, flourishing city of Spain, with its mixed population 
of three hundred thousand people, is very attractive, and Don Alvares Tarfe—in Don 
Quixote—is not the only visitor who had left it with the heartfelt words on his lips : 
“ Farewell, Barcelona, the home of courtesy, refuge for strangers, country of the valiant, 
farewell.” 

The second seaport and third city of Spain is Malaga, which has impressed many 
travelers as a grand sight from the port. It lies up from the shore, outlined against 
wild and rocky mountains on the right. On the slope, below the blackened ruins of the 
Castle of Gibralfaro, the cathedral rises majestically above all the surrounding build¬ 
ings, with two beautiful towers and a very high belfry pointing toward heaven, while a 
multitude of smoky houses, one above the other, seem to have been placed at random 
between. “ On the left of the cathedral, along the shore, is a row of houses, ash, violet 
and yellowish in color, with a white line around the windows and doors. Beyond lies a 
garland of green and reddish hills that inclose the city like walls of an amphitheater ; on 
the right and left, along the sea-shore, are other mountains, hills and rocks, as far as the 
eye can reach. The interior of the city contains very little of note. The new part, 
occupying the space formerly covered by the sea, is built with broad straight streets and 
great bare houses ; the rest of the city is a labyrinth of tortuous streets and a conglom¬ 
eration of houses without color or without grace. There are spacious squares, with 
gardens and fountains, some columns and arches of Arabian edifices, but no modern 


Valencia. 


203 

monuments, much filth and not many people,” though the population is said to be about 
the same as Valencia,—a hundred and fifty thousand. 

Valencia is below Barcelona, following the coast line to the southward, and is the 
capital of the fertile and beautiful Kingdom of Valencia. By land it is reached through 
“ gardens, vineyards, thick groves of orange trees, white villas surmounted by terraces, 
gay villages, all painted in bright colors, in groups and rows ; thickets of palms, pome¬ 
granates, aloes and sugar cane, endless hedges of Indian figs, long chains of hills, cone- 
shaped heights, converted into kitchen, flower-gardens and swards. Everywhere, in fact, 
there is a luxurious vegetation, which covers every vacancy, overtops every height, 
clothes each projection, rises, waves, sweeps along, crowds together, interlaces, impedes 
the views, shuts in the roads, dazzles you with green, and wearies you with beauty. * * * 
The first building you see upon entering Valencia is an immense bull circus, formed by 
four rows of arches, one above the other, supported by large pilasters, built of brick and 
resembling in the distance the Colosseum at Rome'. The city is built on a vast and 
arid plain on the bank of the Guadalquiver, which separates it from its suburbs, a short 
distance from the bay, which serves as a harbor ; it is all tortuous streets, flanked by 
high, ugly and many colored houses. On the left bank there is an immense promenade 
formed by majestic avenues and beautiful gardens, which are reached by leaving the city 
through the gate of the Cid, flanked by two great embattled towers, and named after the 
great Spanish hero, because he passed through it in 1904, after having driven the Arabs 
from Valencia.” Besides the cathedral, which has many historical associations, but is not 
very fine, there are several places worth seeing,—beautiful palaces, where great events in 
the history of the kingdom have occurred ; but above all is the Lonja , or merchants’ 
exchange, where there is a famous room, formed by three great naves, divided by 
twenty-four twisted columns, over which curve the light arches of the ceiling. Val¬ 
encia alive and gay must be seen during the annual festival; then it is bright, gay, 
spirited and busy. Amusements of all kinds are held at all hours ; and trade is at its 
briskest pace. You should see the shops and the people then in the Mercado , “ that 
quaint business street, crowded with little stalls and with peasants in blue, red, yellow, 
mantled and cothurned, their heads topped with pointed hats or variegated handkerchiefs 
deftly knotted into a high crown ; ” or in “ those peculiar shops behind the antique Silk 
Exchange, which are named from signs they hang out, representing the Blessed Virgin, 
Christ, John the Baptist, or the Bleeding Heart. One had for its device a rose, and 
another, distinguished by two large toy lambs placed at its door, was known as the Lambs 
of God.” 

“ The most beautiful thing to be seen at Valencia is the market. The Valen¬ 
cia peasants are more strangely and artistically dressed than any in Spain. They 
have the air of Greeks, bedouins, jugglers or rope-dancers, in their ordinary best clothes. 
They wear a full white shirt in the place of a jacket, a variegated velvet waistcoat, open 


204 


Cities of the World. 


at the chest, a pair of trowsers like those of the zouaves, which only come to the knee, 
and stand out like full shirts ; a red or blue sash around the waist, a kind of white em¬ 
broidered woollen leggings, which show the bare knee, and a pair of rope sandals like the 
Catalan peasants. As a covering for the head, which is shaved almost like the Chinese, 
they wear a red, blue, yellow or white handkerchief, twisted in the shape of a cartridge, 
and knotted on the temple or nape of the neck. Upon this they place a little velvet hat. 
When they go to town they generally carry over their shoulders or arms, sometimes in 
the shape of a shawl, mantle or scarf, a woolen capa, long and narrow with bright colored 
stripes—usually white and red—and ornamented with tufts of fringe and rosettes. 
A city square, where hundreds of men dressed like this are gathered, is like a carnival 
scene.” 

In the more modern quarters, the shops are after the model Paris sets. Their 
articles are prettily arranged, and the window curtains are very cleverly painted with 
figures and scenes, some of them being quite funny. Altogether, Valencia is the 
cheeriest of Spanish cities—except Barcelona, which is half French—and has besides a 
good many sights peculiarly its own. The Street of the Cavaliers is lined with somber, 
strange, shabbily elegant old mansions of the nobility, with Gothic windows and open 
arcades in the top story. The new houses are gayly tinted in blue and rose and cream- 
color ; and the gourd-like domes of the cathedral and other large buildings glisten with 
blue tiles and white, set in stripes. A broad boulevard, hedged in with sycamore trees, 
leads to Grao, the port, which is two miles distant. In summer this is crowded with 
tartanas —bouncing little covered wagons, lined with crimson curtains, usually filled with 
pretty senoritas—young Spanish ladies—and with more imposing equipages, adorned with 
footmen in the English style. Every body goes to the shore to bathe toward evening. 
The little bathing establishments extend for a long distance on the sands, and are very 
neat. Between them and the water are refreshment sheds and tables, and every one eats 
or drinks on coming out of the sea ; after that the whole concourse returns again to the 
city, to sleep away the short summer night, and loll away the long day, till it is time to 
come again. 

Of all the races of Spain the finest, the handsomest and the most attractive in every 
way is the Andalusian ; and Seville, their capital, is a city famous in ooetry and song. 
The place itself is modest enough, but here every body is satisfied with life, and if once 
you should live in it, you would feel something of the same affection as the Spaniards for 
this “ Queen of Andalusia.” It is the quaint, interesting town of Cordova, enlarged, 
beautified and enriched, with the same spotless whiteness—though not so very white as 
Cadiz—the same intricate network of small streets, with the scattered odor of oranges 
and lovely air of mystery and oriental appearance. Beside the modest white houses rise 
sumptuous marble palaces, differing in luxury and size, but often on the same plan, each 
window with a balcony, and all with the patio in the center. “ The passage and windows 


Seville. 


205 


of the court correspond with the front windows, so that the passer-by looks into the very 
heart of a genuine Seville abode, as through a sort of lantern.” The patio is seldom 
larger than an ordinary room, surrounded by shady cloisters, containing the summer 
apartments of the family, or several households, as there are sometimes in one house. 
“ Even the poorest dwelling has its airy court, set with shrubs, and perhaps provided 
with water. They are tiled, or paved in marble, as most rooms are in Spain. The well- 
to-do people protect them from the open vestibule by gates of ornamental open iron.” 
Jets of water play in the center, and all around are flowers, pictures and statuary, while 



SEVILLE. 


above, an awning is stretched across to keep off the sun. At night the doors are left open, 
and the moonlight, the odor of roses, and the splashing sounds of water extend into the 
sleeping rooms. In one corner is a work stand, in another a chess-table, or light, mov¬ 
able screen ; here and there are chairs, foot-stools and all the summer comforts and 
luxuries the house can afford. The people sit here in delightful idleness, at work, or 
receiving their friends. In the evening coffee is brought out, and among the flowers and 
statuary, laughter and sweet songs to thrumming of the guitar mingle with the murmur 
of the fountain. In winter they all disappear, furniture, ornaments and people ; the 










206 


Cities of the World. 


patio is deserted, for the household then lives upon the upper floors. This peculiarity of 
the Seville houses makes the city remarkably gay and attractive, and adds an oriental 
charm to its “ little tortuous streets that emerge on immense squares, filled with orange 
trees, or the deserted and silent cross-road, from which one comes out, after a short turn, 
into a street traversed by a noisy crowd.” Various foot-streets, where no carriages go, 
“ are lined with attractive, bazaar-like shops, and overhung by ‘ sails,’ drawn from roof to 
roof, which make telescopic booths, narrow, shady avenues. In these now and again you 
see the picturesque cigarette-girls, or other venders, gayly dressed peasants, or, perhaps, 
a long-cloaked figure, with his sharp-pointed stiletto concealed in the folds of his dress, 
ready for some revengeful deed. These calks , or alley-ways, squirm among the houses 
with no visible intention of ever coming out anywhere.” At every window, in every 
garden, there are some of the famously beautiful Andalusian women, dressed in white, 
half hidden among the graperies and rose bushes. On the bank of the Guadalquiver, 
one of the finest promenades is an arbored road, two or three miles long. Toward 
evening it is an enchanted spectacle, with its pedestrians and equipages ; some of the 
horses seen here are the most magnificent in Spain. “ The Christian Promenade extends 
from the famous Golden Tower to the palace of the Duke of Montpensie, and 
is entirely shaded by oriental plane trees, oaks, cypresses, willows, poplars, 
and other southern trees. A great bridge crosses the river, and leads to the 
suburb of Triana. A long row of ships, the light boats, called golettas , and 
barks extend along the river, and between the Golden Tower and the duke’s palace there 
is a continual coming and going of boats. Toward setting sun a crowd of ladies swarm 
through the avenues, troops of workmen pass the bridge, the work on the ships increases, 
a band hidden among the trees plays, the river is tinged with rose tint, the air is filled 
with the perfume of flowers, and over all is the flaming color of the evening sky. Then 
the city becomes another sight ; as night settles down the patios of all the houses are 
illuminated and the marbles of the vestibules, the mosaics of the walls, the glass in the 
doors and the crystals of the tapers shine in a thousand colors. To pass through the 
streets—full of promenaders—seemed like going through so many ball rooms, crowded 
with ladies and overflowing with music, voices and laughter.” In the daylight the fairy 
land has vanished and you are yourself again, the dazzling spell has left, and you are 
free to see the “ lions ” of the famous city. “ First of all comes the cathedral, grand and 
magnificent outside, in the center of its spacious square ; wonderful, bewildering within, 
with pillars that in the distance appear too slender to support the building, though they 
are large as towers. There are five naves, each one of which might form a church ; 
all of them together form sixty-eight bold vaulted ceilings which seem to expand and 
rise slowly as you look at them. The chapels are worthy of the church, for they con¬ 
tain the masterpieces of over a hundred painters and sculptors.” There are so many 
marvelous things in art and historical interest about the Cathedral that I can not even 


Granada . 


207 


name them. There is the Court of the Oranges situated on the west of the church, 
surrounded by a great embattled wall, and set with a fountain in the center encircled by 
a grove of orange trees, and the Giralda, that are especially famous and beautiful. 
“ The Giralda is an old Arabian tower, built, it is said, in the year 1000, after the designs 
of Gaver, the inventor of algebra. Although it has undergone some important changes 
it has still an Arabian appearance, immense and imposing as an Egyptian pyramid and 
at the same time as gay and lovely as. the chiosk of a garden. It is a square brick tower 
of a very beautiful rose color, quite bare up to a certain point, after which it is orna¬ 
mented with little Moorish mullion windows, scattered here and there at random, and 
furnished with small balconies; then there rises a Christian bell tower three floors in 
height : in the first is the bell ; the second is encircled by a balustrade, and the third is 
formed like a kind of bell tower, upon which turns, like a weather vane, a colossal 
statue of gilded bronze.” From afar and near it is a landmark, and in all the range of view 
from the pinnacle there is nothing so fair as Seville itself, white as marble, “ encircled by 
a wreath of gardens, groves and avenues in the midst of a country scattered with villas 
and covered with oriental beauties.” On the same square as the Cathedral is the 
Alcazar, an ancient palace of the Moorish kings, like a fortress with its high walls and 
embattled towers without, but within is the most elegant Arabian-Christian royal palace 
in the world ; next to it is the Casa de Pilatos , a simple and plain looking palace on the 
outside, marvelous within the courts and grand halls. Seville is now an intellectual city, 
though it no longer deserves the name of the Spanish Athens, which it once so proudly 
bore ; and after Madrid it is the most flourishing in art, literature, and university 
education in Spain. Its people number about a hundred and forty thousand, and its 
interesting sights—they are legion. 

Granada is the most celebrated city of Southern Spain, although with its population 
of seventy-five thousand it is now but the shadow of the powerful city of the Moors, 
which, before the Christian conquest, held five hundred thousand people. 

“ Granada rests in what might pass for the Happy Valley of Rasselas, a deep stretch 
of thirty miles, called simply the Vega , and tilled from end to end on a system of irriga¬ 
tion established by the Moslem conquerors.” It is a town of “ spacious squares, some 
beautiful straight streets and others tortuous and narrow, lined with houses, painted in 
imitation bas-reliefs, with cupids, garlands, bits of curtain and veils of a thousand colors, 
without that oriental aspect peculiar to the other Andalusian cities. The lowest part of 
Granada is almost entirely built up with the regularity of a modern city ; ” they lead to 
the picturesque Alameda , which is said to be the most beautiful promenade in the world ; 
it is “ a long avenue of extraordinary width through which fifty carriages in line could 
pass, flanked by minor avenues, along which run rows of immense trees that form at a 
great height an enormous arch of verdure, so thick that not a ray of sunshine can shine 
through it; and, at the extremities of the middle avenue, two fountains, which throw up 


208 


Cities of the World. 


water in large streams, that fall again in fine vaporous rain ; and between the avenues 
crystaline springs ; and, in the center, a garden filled with roses, myrtle, jasmine and 
springs of water ; on one side is the river Xenil, which flows between two banks shaded 
by groves of laurel, and far away are the mountains covered with snow, upon which the dis¬ 
tant palms rear their fantastic heads ; and all about a vivid green very thick and luxu¬ 
riant, which allows one to catch a glimpse here and there of blue sky that is 
bewitching; ” dominating all is the Alhambra, situated on a high hill, looking like a 
fortress in the distance. This great palace of the Moorish power in Spain is the grandest 



COURT 07 BLESSING, ALHAMBRA. 


monument in the country, though battered and partly fallen by the wanton abuse of 
enemies and time. It is but a relic of the past now, and yet is so wonderful that many 
other writers beside our own Washington Irving have filled whole volumes in description 
of it and the history connected with it. One view of it that should never be missed— 
nor the visit itself omitted—is from the Generalife, the Moorish sovereigns’ summer 
villa, on the summit of a flowery mountain rising on the right bank of the Darro 
opposite the hill of the Alhambra. Nearly all traces of by-gone days are here super- 































Cadiz . 


209 

seded by a small, simple, white villa, with few windows, an arched gallery and a 
terrace, and is hidden in the midst of a thicket of laurel and myrtle. 

Cadiz, on the other side of the grand old rock of Gibraltar, though not very large, 
is also a famous town of Spain. From the sea it looks like an “island of plaster,— 
a great white spot in the midst of the sea, without a dark shading, a black point, 
or a single shadow upon it. A long narrow strip of land joins it with the main¬ 
land, and it is bathed on all sides by the sea, like a ship ready to set sail and only 
fastened to the shore by a cable. As you approach it every thing seems whiter and 
whiter ; it is the whitest city in the world. In the houses, within or without, their courts, 
the walls of the shops, the stone seats, pilasters, even the most remote corners and 
darkest houses of the poor, or most unfrequented streets, are all white. No servant, who 
does not understand whitewashing, is received in any family. The streets are straight, 
but very narrow, so that, as they are very long too and most of them cross the whole city, 
one can see at the end, as through the crack of a door, a small strip of sky. The houses 
have a large number of windows, and every window is furnished with a kind of project¬ 
ing inclosed balcony, which rests on that of the window above and supports the one of 
the window below ; in many streets of this fashion houses are completely covered with glass. 
You hardly see a bit of wall, and seem to be walking through the corridors of an immense 
museum. Here and there, between the houses, project the superb branches of a palm ; 
in every square there is a luxurious mass of verdure ; at all the windows there are tufts 
of grass and bunches of flowers.” From one of the many towers the view of Cadiz is 
like a great white play-city. Who would ever think it had been burned, bombarded, 
devastated by plague and the scene of such horrible massacres ! it lies so perfectly pure- 
looking now, who would ever guess at its thrilling history ! From the midst of the build¬ 
ings as from the sea it is milk-white. “ There is not a roof in the entire city. Every 
house is closed at the top by a terrace, surrounded by a whitewashed parapet. From 
almost all these terraces rises a small tower, white, too, which, in turn, is surmounted by 
another terrace cupola or species of sentinel box ; every thing white. All these little 
cupolas, points and battlements, which form a curious and very varied outline around 
the city, stand out and appear whiter still against the blue of the sea. The cathedral is 
an immense marble edifice of the sixteenth century, of a bold and noble architecture, 
and rich, like all the Spanish churches, in every kind of treasure.” Above the high altar 
in the Cadiz convent is the picture which Murillo was painting when he had the fall from 
the scaffolding which caused his death. The bull circus and the picture gallery are in¬ 
teresting, but they are not so fine as many others in Spain, while the promenade along 
the sea shore, among oranges and palms, is perfectly charming. In the evening the band 
plays and the broad walks are filled with gay crowds of gallant Spanish cavaliers, and 
beautiful, dark-eyed women. 

Sunny Spain, with its half-tropical climate, and easy-going, pleasure-loving people, 


2 IO 


Cities of the World. 


seems a land where work is very unimportant. It is easy to live, where the natural pro¬ 
ducts are cheap, palatable and nourishing, and the weather is warm enough to spend 
most of the time out of doors ; then, a great many people—especially in the cities— 
belong to the nobility and are supported by the government in offices of civil trust, in the 
army, clergy and different orders of nuns, to say nothing of the numbers who live as 
prisoners, or as beggars all their lives. But there are some workers ; in the fertile plains 
and valleys farmers raise olives, almonds, grapes, nuts, oranges, lemons and raisins, which 
are valuable exports, although common enough at home. It takes many hands to make 
these into oil and prepare them for the foreign market, even before they can go to the 
merchants or the shippers. There is a great mineral wealth in Spain that is worked 
somewhat, and many peasants are employed day after day as shepherds to care for the 
flocks that pasture on the hill-sides. Tradesmen and shopkeepers copy something of the 
French enterprise in their stores ; artisans and servants are many, while in and about 
Barcelona there are extensive cotton mills. In other places the making of silk and paper 
are thriving industries. In addition to all these occupations there are large numbers of 
men and women employed in factories for making tobacco, fire-arms and gunpowder, 
which last are controlled altogether by the government. 


PORTUGAL. 

I T is a stange fact that tourists go all the way around Portugal,—to France, Spain, 
and to Italy—but leave this tiny kingdom of the Iberian peninsula unvisited ; and yet 
travelers who have been there are enthusiastic in praise of its beautiful scenery and 
interesting places. Lisbon, from the Tagus, is compared to the majestic city of 
Constantinople, to Genoa, and is even said to be as fair and queenly as Naples, of which 
Goethe said that no man who remembered seeing it could be perfectly miserable. From 
the tops of the hills, “ crowned by castle, cloister and cathedral,” its houses, “ built of 
creamy, marble-like sandstone, terrace the hill-sides, forming a stately staircase, down 

which Lisbon steps as a queen to the water’s edge. The tiled fronts of the houses_ 

which, seen nearer make one think of patchwork bed-quilts hung out to air—in the 
distance flash back the sunshine from their glazed surfaces like so many great gems ” 
among domes and cupolas, church towers and palace fa9ades. If some of the enchant¬ 
ment is lost after you have landed, surely there is full compensation in interesting sights. 

The mountainous streets wind and climb, criss-cross, angle, and lose themselves in 
labyrinthine tangles, blind alleys or pleasant squares ; ” the balconies of the houses 



Lisbon. 


211 


are draped with bright rugs or gay shawls and overhung by parti-colored awnings. 
“ The people live much upon the street; the houses of the poor open to it, and from the 
narrow sidewalk there is a full view of the home life. In the more elegant quarters the 
wistaria droops in purple festoons over the balustrades which edge the roof, while spots 
of rosy pink or vivid scarlet tell of blossoming oleanders or cacti, for the roof of one 
row of houses often forms its own garden, or that of the houses upon the next terrace. 
Here and there roofs of red semi-cylindrical tile project over the house fronts, suggest¬ 
ing the fluted frill of an old lady’s cap. Everywhere there is sparkling color and daz¬ 
zling light. Sometimes the tiles on the fronts of the houses form mosaics of gigantic 
figures, vases of flowers, or baskets of fruit. A prominent feature in street life are the 
Varinhos, or fish and fruit women, natives of Ovar, in the north of Portugal. They 
form a strong contrast to the native Lisbonese, by their odd peasant costume and by 
their business-like, hustling and bustling manners, and the untiring industry with which 
they run barefoot all day over the rough pavements, balancing a heavy basket of fruit 
or fish nicely upon their heads, and shrilly calling their wares as they go. In the fruit 
market these Varinhos are the huckster women, who, in a little umbrella encampment, 
sell poultry, bouquets, and heaps of apricots,—‘ eggs of the sun,’—grapes, plums, and 
purple figs ; or who, in the fish market at early morning, fill their baskets from the slimy, 
shining heaps, that the fishermen have just brought in. Their costume is a loose jacket 
and short blue stuff skirt, with a sash knotted about the hips. They are all fond of 
jewelry, and several chains or strings of gold beads, with two pairs of heavy ear-rings 
that look like two united water jars, are often seen in company with bare feet and tatters. 
Another class of people familiar in the Lisbon streets are the Gallegos. These are 
burly thick-set men with bushy black side whiskers and clean shaven upper lips. They 
are natives of Galicia and the hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Portuguese, 
who feel it a degradation to bear any kinds of burdens. 

“ The public squares of the city are numerous and generally charmingly laid out, 
with a profusion of semi-tropical plants, statues, and fountains. You can scarcely walk 
in any direction without soon passing a number of chafarizes —they keep the Moorish 
name for fountains—trickling from a carved head, or iron tube set in the wall, into a 
capacious stone basin ; they are supplied from the Alcantara Aqueduct, which is con¬ 
sidered the greatest piece of bridge architecture in the world, it being eighteen miles 
long and higher than Trinity steeple in New York. Thirty Gallegos fill their casks at 
each fountain and carry water about the city to all who are not directly supplied by the 
water-works or by wells. The water carriers also form the fire department, and other 
Gallegos act as porters. These are usually men of immense strength ; a couple of them 
will carry, by means of a yoke, from which a swinging platform hangs, huge burdens of¬ 
tentimes weighing as much as half a ton.” During the day the streets are usually 
rather deserted, especially of ladies, who, after attending mass, spend the rest of their 


2 I 2 


Cities of the World. 

time in sitting by the window or occasionally doing a little needle work. But at night 
Lisbon wakes up and is seen to the best advantage. The parks glitter with gas jets and 
numerous bands vie with each other in creating a crash of sound. The senhoras 
ladies—descend from their watch-towers, in resplendent Parisian costumes, visit the 
theaters and the public gardens with the handsome Portuguese gentlemen, who, even 
on foot, have a cavalier appearance from their elegant manners, their dress and the 
enormous spurs that many wear who never mount a horse. Lisbon, devout as well as 
gay, has numerous churches and noble charities. The church and monastery of Sao 
Jeronymo, at Belem, the western suburb of Lisbon, is one of the most interesting build¬ 
ings in Portugal. Through the richly carved doorway in the great massive walls with 
their florid decorations, you enter the imposing interior. Tall, richly wrought columns 
shoot upward, supporting the vaulted roof, which has been described as so delicate 
that the immense mass of stone groining looks as light and feathery as the underside of a 
clump of palm branches. At the time it was being built, every one felt sure that the roof 
would fall as soon as the scaffolding was taken away ; the architect himself was so afraid 
his work would prove a failure that he ran away to France before the trial was made. 
The king appointed condemned criminals to remove the supports, promising pardon if 
the covering did not fall. Contrary to all expectations the roof rested securely on its 
slender piers ; the liberated felons used the scaffolding to build houses for themselves ; 
the storms and even earthquakes of four centuries have swept by the structure and still 
it stands unshaken from its delicate poise. “ Within the cloister garden great bushes of 
pink hydrangeas relieve the cool gray architecture with their brilliant color. Rose trees 
bend with ghostly white and passionate crimson blossoms. Unfamiliar flame-colored 
flowers from China, palms and ferns, vines and shrubs, are grouped in hot-house profu¬ 
sion within the low hedges of trimly-cut box.” This ancient monastery is now used for 
an orphans’ school, called the Casa Pia. In the old refectory, hung with portraits of 
the kings of Portugal and wainscoted with tiles representing the history of Joseph, is now 
the dining-room, and around the long, low tables five hundred or so of happy, intelli¬ 
gent-looking boys gather for every meal. Although “ charity scholars, educated at the 
government expense, they are not only taught the ordinary branches with the addition 
of French and English, but are allowed to make choice of a trade, and after this is 
learned, to leave the institution with a new suit of clothes and a set of tools as an out¬ 
fit. The little beds in the well-ventilated, pleasant dormitories are clean and sweet, the 
food nourishing, and in the upper cloisters ” an American visitor saw the bathing 
suits in which the boys frolicked on the beach laid out to dry in the sun. On the sea¬ 
shore, not far from the monastery, stands the Tower of Belem, which, though built in 
1495, 1S wonderfully fresh and perfect. The great crosses of the Order of Christ, bla¬ 
zoned on the shields which faced the battlements, show like a narrow edge of embroidery 
from below, and the whole edifice is singularly light and graceful for a fortress against 


Oporto . 


213 


pirates and a military prison, whose delicate watch towers, hanging in mid-air on the 
corners of the building, have stood centuries of storm as unshaken as its foundations 
have resisted the “ relentless smiting of the waves." 

Many relics of Lisbon’s former greatness are to be seen in the city. “ The roofless, 
vine-grown arches, the broken ribs of the once noble vault ” of the old Carmo church are 
“ a most striking monument to the power of the great earthquake of 1755 which shook 
the city to its foundations ; ” in one of its chancels is the Archaeological Society’s Mu¬ 
seum ; but “ the true museums of Lisbon are the curiosity shops," with their motley 
stock of things curious, old and beautiful; “ more directly connected with the known 
Portuguese history is a collection of antique royal carriages of tattered and tottering but 
still pompous relics of former pageants that bring back vividly the epochs of the men 
they served." Among them are “ two queer pickle-jar arrangements on wheels that are 
used by the image of the Virgin when on holy-days she takes an airing in festal pro¬ 
cessions. Chief of these religious carnivals is the festival of Corpus Christi. On this 
occasion St. George—a Gallego in a suit of armor—parades the street upon a handsome 
horse, and the king is obliged to follow on foot and bare-headed. But it is in the north 
of Portugal that religious fetes are to be seen at their best; " in Lisbon the popular en¬ 
thusiasm reaches to its height in the bull-fights. A Portuguese bull-fight is a very 
different affair from the disgusting and brutal national sport in Spain ; neither bulls nor 
horses are killed, and the fighters run very little risk, as cylinders ending in wooden 
knobs cover the animal’s horns and it can only inflict a knock-down blow, instead of 
piercing and tearing. This seems, of course, very tame to the Spaniards, but the Lis- 
bonese revel in the sport," and make it a very brilliant entertainment. “ Royalty honors 
the scene by attendance, and the beauty and fashion of Lisbon shine in full opera dress 
in the upper boxes, their white elbows resting on richly embroidered silk shawls which 
drape the boxes in front in graceful folds," while the most elegant and accomplished 
sons of nobility are often the principal figures in the ring. 

Throughout the narrow, crooked and badly-paved old part in the eastern portion as 
well as in the more stately New Town, Lisbon has many churches and chapels, monas¬ 
teries, homes and hospitals, numerous educational and scientific institutions, libraries and 
museums ; and among the industries there are extensive shipbuilding docks, powder 
mills and arsenals, and factories where quantities of silk, porcelain, paper, soap, and 
other things are made ; and along the busy docks the vessels are loaded with oranges, 
citrons, wool, oil and leather, chiefly for the foreign markets of Great Britain 
and Africa. There are about two hundred and fifty thousand people in the 
capital, which is a little more than twice as many as live in the largest Portuguese 
seaport, Oporto. This is “ an oddly gabled city with many balconied fa£ades; 
gleaming now bizarre, now pure white, among the trees in irregular terraces that 
stretch along the Douro as far as the eye can reach ; high, narrow houses shoulder each 


214 


Cities of the World. 


other steeply up the hill, crowding, overhanging, and grudging every foot of the tortuous 
streets that zigzag among them or plunge precipitately like torbid torrents into the river. It is 
a city of contrasts. Rickety, toppling structures, swarming with life, look into the spa¬ 
cious arched corridors, and shaded gardens of a handsome palacio ; smart and modern 
buildings ablaze with gaudy colored tiles press the crenellated wall of a time-blackened 
line of fortifications. In the background tower the slender campanile of the Torre dos 
Clerigos —Tower of the Clergy—and the pretentious dome of the Crystal Palace. The 
suspension bridge throws its delicate arch across the gorge of the Douro, and the ship¬ 
ping files in the mouth of the river. Crowds of gayly dressed peasants swarm the quay, 
and little boats ply from either shore. It is a scene of infinite variety and animation, 
for the Douro is Oporto’s principal thoroughfare, where the little bizarre, gondola-like 
boats, with their stout oarsmen or oarswomen, row you where you want to go.” The port 
is always well filled with craft—“steamers and sailing-vessels bound for Brazil, or just 
in with codfish from the Banks, queer fishing craft from the coast, feluccas with lateen 
sails, flat caiques from the bar, and galleys—some of them with double banks of oarsmen 
in ancient style—from the vinelands. They wait at the foot of the Queen’s Stairs, 
with idle, flapping sails, while the procession of market-women ready for home troop 
down the broad flight of stone steps, with nests of empty crates forming high columns 
upon their heads. Women engaged in coaling ships trot briskly up and down with sooty 
baskets, and the sinewy arms of many others often pass their brother oarsmen or give 
them a close race. The Serra Convent— 

* Half church of God, 

Half castle ’gainst the Moor,’ 

looks down upon this busy scene from its high eyrie of numerous unoccupied buildings. 
The Douro is like the people of its great city ; it is strong, wild, and turbulent, and 
though forced to serve the interests of commerce and manufacture, its riotous disposition 
shows itself in sudden freshets, like the passionate outbreak of opinion among the factory 
operatives and lower orders of the city, who, for the most part are engaged in the silk and 
glove factories, the linen, wool and cotton mills, or the large places that make tobacco 
and segars, and earthen ware and leather. Oporto is abundantly supplied with water 
by means of public fountains, around which, as at Lisbon, interesting groups are formed 
of picturesque women and brawny men, who gossip and wrangle while awaiting the slow 
filling of their water pots and casks ; ” and the streets of this city are as interesting in 
their way as those of the capital. “ There is not so much elegant sauntering, but the 
people seem to have the art of blending enjoyment with business. Oporto is a commer¬ 
cial city more than any thing else. Its palaces are those of merchants, and have an air of 
newness and of modern improvements. Enterprise is the order of the day. New build- 


Oporto . 


215 


ings are constantly springing up, and there is scarcely a quarter to be found where the 
clink of the trowel and the sharp blow of the hammer are not heard. The citizens have 
a busier and more energetic air than those of Lisbon. The spirit of trade pervades all 
classes ; the children even barter their toys, and boast of their good bargains. The 
markets have far more of a provincial character than those of Lisbon,” and to a 
stranger they are full of endless amusements, as he “ wanders among the booths and 
tables, and admires the types of magnificent womanhood always there. All through the 
market the women are busy, filling the intervals of trade with spinning or some other 
useful employment. The poultry sellers have pigeons and partridges, in rustic cages 
formed of sticks thrust into two round pieces of cork ; and noisy ducks, protruding their 
necks through the wire-netting stretched across their baskets.” Then there is the onion 
booth, with its braided clusters of enormous red bulbs ; the pottery merchant, with his 
display of gayly painted plaques and vases, while “ skirting the principal market, like an 
outlying line of fortifications, stand the ox-carts which have brought in the fruits and 
vegetables of the farmers. The ornamental carved yoke of the oxen is a flat board 
pierced with a tracery, often reminding one of Moorish lattice-work, and often colored 
in the same oriental fashion. A favorite resort in evenings, is the finely laid-out 
park adjoining the Crystal Palace, where bands and fireworks rend the air with imita¬ 
tion thunder and lightning.” The Crystal Palace was raised for an exhibition building 
and is a fine one for its purposes ; fairs and various different amusements are now held 
in it. “ Characteristic evening spectacles at Oporto are the funerals, which always take 
place at night. Attendants run beside the hearse carrying links, forming a ghastly and 
insufficient torch-light procession. At the church the coffin is laid upon a bier in the 
center of the nave and draped with a heavy pall. When the funeral is that of a person 
of wealth, tall waxen tapers are handed by the beadle to everyone who enters the church, 
and lines of choir boys extending from the altar to the main entrance chant with their 
clear youthful voices the service for the dead.” The Cathedral is one of the oddest 
pieces of architecture in the world, with its “ ugly serpents, griffins and other Gothic 
hobgoblins that climb and leer from every cranny. Extraordinary blue tiles face the 
walls of the cloisters within, from the pavement to the upper story, and depict most 
amazing scenes from the Song of Solomon,” Besides these places of interest there are 
several hospitals and a good many other fine institutions that are among the best in the 
kingdom. This is the second, and after Lisbon the only real important city of Portugal. 
It has about a hundred and ten thousand people, nearly the size of Jersey City, New 
j erse y —and deals a great deal in wine, especially port, which takes its name from the 
city, and makes it full of extra life and activity during the vintage season. Much of this 
cargo and the other shipments from Oporto are carried in vessels made in its own ship¬ 
yards, which send out famously fast sailers. 


ITALY. 


A LL persons who travel at all visit Italy. No other country combines so many 
Ijl attractions, or speaks so many different voices 6f invitation.” The greatness of that 
country is not in population, commerce or industry ; it is the greatness of beauty and art. 

“ A land 

Which was the mightiest in its old command, 

And is the loveliest, and must ever be 

The master-mold of Nature’s heavenly hand ; 
******* 

Fair Italy, 

Thou art the garden of the world, the home 
Of all Art yields, and Nature can decree.” 

In all ages, poets and painters have celebrated the charms of this fair land ; every trav¬ 
eler feels the spell, and turning his face toward Italy, first goes, as a matter of course, to 
Rome. This is beyond any other in the world a city of art and artists. There are end¬ 
less numbers of museums and collections, churches, chapels, palaces, and magnificent 
ruins and every other facility for the study of art. Here on the banks of the yellow 
Tiber there are two cities ; the Christian capital of a new nation lies beside and even 
above the Rome of the Caesars and the emperors which once ruled the world. The city 
rests on the seven ancient hills and several other heights or promontories rising out of 
the plateau, which was once the beautiful verdant Campagna, but is now a great sandy 
waste in the midst of which a living and a dead city lie side by side. Modern Rome lies on 
both the west and the east bank of the Tiber, the larger part of it being on the east side 
and in the valley of the old Campus Martius, and stretching along the slopes of the Capi- 
toline, Esquiline, Viminal and Quirinal hills ; the Palatine, Aventine and Coelian, the re¬ 
mainder of the original Seven Hills, lie to the south-eastward and are in the partially 
deserted district of “ Old Rome,” surrounded and partially covered with the magnificent 
remains of the classic city.* Both cities lie within the present walls which make a circuit 
of fourteen miles. Only a little more than one-third of the five and a half square miles 
thus inclosed is occupied by houses, streets and squares ; gardens and vineyards cover 
the rest. But these are gradually being encroached upon, for Rome, the eternal 
city, once more become the capital of a great state, is now rapidly growing. The river 
which is spanned by five bridges is now a turbid choked-up stream at Rome, taking a 

* For description of ancient Rome, see “ Great Cities of the Ancient World.” 



Rome . 


217 


zig-zag course, from north to south. The main part of the new city, and all of the old, 
stretches beyond its eastern shore. One of the principal entrances to Rome is the Porta 
del Populo , or Gate of the People, in the northern wall. “ The Gate itself, although 
designed in part by Michael Angelo, is not particularly noticeable, but the Piazza del 
Populo , upon which it opens, is an imposing square covering three or four acres. In the 
center rises the noble obelisk of Rhameses, with a fountain at its base having four rounded 
basins radiating from a common center like the leaves of a stalk of four leafed clover,— 
a stream of water gushing into each basin from the mouth of a lioness carved in stone. 
The sides of the piazza are crescent shaped, with a fountain in the center of each, adorned 



BRIDGE OF ST. ANGELO, AND THE BORGO. 

with a colossal marble statue ; it is bounded on the right by a row of trees,—behind which 
are some of the finest private residences in Rome,—and on the left, by the sloping and 
terraced walks which lead to the heights of the Monte Pincio. Opposite the gate rise 
the domes of two churches exactly alike in size and form and making the point from 
which the three principal streets of Rome branch out. The Corso in the center leads 
southward to the capitol, beyond which lies the site of the Forum, and ancient Rome ; 
the Babuino, on the east, or left, leads to the Piazza di Spagna and the English quarter ; 
the Ripetta on the right, leads by one westward turn to the Castle of St. Angelo and St. 

























2 18 


Cities of the World. 

Peter’s across the river. Each of these avenues leads to a multitude of interesting places ; 
but the narrow Corso, a mile in length, lined with balconies in front of shops, palaces and 
private houses, is chief among all. It is the finest street in Rome. Grand old palaces, 
handsome churches and many other buildings of mingled ancient and modern architect¬ 
ure, with innumerable numbers and styles of balconies, line the famous streets on both 
sides, while here and there it broadens into a piazza, or is met by a side street which also 
leads to a chapel, gallery or some other great monument of beauty and time. Just 
beyond the end of the Corso, the Via della Pedacchia turns to the right, and ends in the 
sunny open space at the foot of the Capitol. An immense flight of steps where the 
famous staircase to the Temple of Jupiter used to stand, leads up the hill. At its foot 
are two lions of Egyptian porphyry, and at its head are colossal statues of the twin 
heroes, Castor and Pollux, and beyond are other statues and precious relics of Imperial 
Rome. Above the grand staircase is the spacious piazza where Brutus harangued the 
people after the murder of Julius Caesar. In the center of the square is the famous 
statue of Marcus Aurelius, the most perfect ancient equestrian statue in existence. You 
can still see the traces of the gilding with which it was covered when it stood in front of the 
Arch of Septimius Severus. At the back of the piazza a double staircase leads to the 
palace of the Senator, and all about are statues and fountains, with which modern Rome 
has been embellished from the ruins of her glorious mother-city. 

On either side of the Senators’ Palace are the handsome lofty palaces built by 
Michael Angelo and filled with choice collections ; from the center rises the square^ 
majestic Tower of the Capitol, from which there is a magnificent view “not only of the 
City of the Seven Hills, but the various towns and villages of the neighboring plain and moun¬ 
tain which one after another fell under its sway.” To the south-west is the Tarpeian Rock 
with the Mamertine Prison, and the Temple of Vesta beyond on the bank of the river ; fur¬ 
ther toward the south, with many historic churches and picturesque ruins between, is the 
Aventine Hill; beyond that are the remains of the old Servian wall and the Protestant 
Cemetery with its ancient pyramid of Caius Cestius, built in the present wall, and eastward 
of this the ruins of Caracalla’s Baths—the finest ever built—while nearer by the ancient 
Forum Romanum , the great center of Imperial and Republican life, lies between the 
Capitol and the Palatine Hill, with its massive fluted columns and rich capitals solitary 
and dismantled, towering above a few mean unsightly palaces set amid the rubbish of 
ages. At the further end it leads to that most noble skeleton of bygone magnificence, 
the Coliseum. If we were travelers we would linger here : the Palatine Hill lies on the 
west, and the Coelian on the south, while eastward extends the once beautiful plain where 
the Roman villas lay, which have never since been equaled, and are even now awe¬ 
inspiring in their remains of stateliness and beauty. What was once the Baths of Titus 
stand near the Coliseum on the north-east. This circuit covers “ Old Rome ; ” to the 
northward is the Esquiline Hill, and next to that the Capitoline, which with the Quirinal 


Rome . 


219 



some distance above and the Viminal, have buried their desolation under a living city. 
The most notable thing now on the Quirinal is the Royal Palace, which has been called one 
of the largest and ugliest buildings in the 
world. It was originally a papal palace, begun 
by Pope Paul IV., and continued by a long 
line of his successors ; but is now the resi¬ 
dence of the royal family. Between the foot 
of the Capitol and the river is the Ghetto, or 
the Jews’ Quarter, which was once cut off 
from the rest of the city, and the loathsome 
place where all the Hebrews of Rome were 
compelled to live. None could appear out¬ 
side unless the men were in yellow hats, or 
the women in yellow veils ; and although 
almost all the intolerant restrictions have now 
been removed the life of the Jews in Rome 
is far from independent. The quarter, which 

is entered by eight gates, is entirely made the capitol. 



up of narrow, crooked and dark 
streets, small squares, tall houses, 
moldy and sometimes half-decayed, 
with here and there the seven- 
branched candlestick carved on the 
walls ; remains of ancient palaces— 
and shops. Shops are without num¬ 
ber ; every thing may be obtained 
in the Ghetto ; behind these heaps, 
out of which the women sew all that 
is capable of being sewn, are 
precious stones, lace, furniture of 
all kinds, rich embroidery from Al¬ 
giers and Constantinople, striped 
stuffs from Spain—but all is con¬ 
cealed and under cover. The Jew 
shop-keepers hiss at you, Cosa cercate 
as you thread their narrow alleys, 
trying to induce you to bargain with 


pyramid OF caius cestius. them. The same article is often 

passed on by mutual arrangement from shop to shop, and meets you wherever you go. On 













220 


Cities of the World. 


Friday evening all shops are shut, and bread is baked for the Sabbath, all merchandise is 
removed, and the men go to the synagogue and wish each other ‘ a good Sabbath * on 
their return. The Ghetto is divided into five districts or parishes, each of which rep¬ 
resents a particular race, whose fathers have been either Roman-Jewish from ancient 
times, or have been brought hither from Spain and Sicily.*' Everywhere it teems with 
life and dirt. “ The people sit in their doorways, or outside in the streets, which do not 
get much more light than the damp and gloomy chambers—and grub amid their old 
trumpery or patch and sew diligently.” As you walk through these close muddy by-ways 



THE COLISEUM BY MOONLIGHT. 

“ the whole world seems to be lying about in countless rags and scraps. The frag¬ 
ments lie in heaps before the doors, they are of every kind and color—gold fringes, scraps 
of silk brocade, bits of velvet, red patches, blue patches, orange, yellow, black or white, 
torn, old, slashed and tattered pieces, large and small. Here sit the daughters of Zion, at 
work of mending, darning and fine drawing. It is chiefly in the Fiumara, the street lying 
lowest and nearest to the river, and in the street corners that this business is carried on by 
men as well as women, girls and children,—pale, stooping, starving figures, with misery 













Rome. 


221 


staring from the tangled hair and complaining silently in the yellow brown faces,” which 
have not even a trace of beauty. “ The women have such great skill in mending and 
repairing garments that their services are in demand all over the city ; many of them 
spend their time in finer kinds of needle work and beautiful lace work, so rich and 
massive that it seems to have been carved rather than wrought. The lower streets of 
the Ghetto, especially the Fiumara, are every year overflowed during the spring rains and 
melting of the mountain snows, which makes great misery and distress. Yet in spite of 
this and of the teeming population crowded into narrow alleys, there was less sickness 
here during the cholera than in any other part of Rome ; and malaria,” which drives peo¬ 
ple from their homes every summer in almost every other part of the city, “ is unknown 
here. This may be due to the Jewish custom of whitewashing their dwellings at every 
festival.” On the south the Ghetto faces the Island of the Tiber ; this having been the 
site of several important buildings of ancient Rome and the scene of some notable his¬ 
torical events, it has more interest in the past than the present. Beside the picturesque 
remains of earlier towers and castle, the Island is now occupied by the Church and Con¬ 
vent of St. Bartholomew, which stands in the center, with a broad piazza in front decor¬ 
ated with statues and pillars, and the Hospital Ben fratelli opposite. Near here a nar¬ 
row lane leads to the end of the Island, where there is a little quay littered with 
fragments of ancient temples from which a very interesting view of the river and its 
bridges is to be had. A bridge of one large and two small arches connects the Island 
with the quarter of Rome called the Trastevere , or city “ across the Tiber,”—“ which is 
almost unaltered from medieval times, and whose narrow streets are still overlooked by 
many ancient towers, gothic windows and curious fragments of sculpture.” The 
people who live here “ differ in many respects from those on the other side of the 
Tiber. They pride themselves on being born Trasteverini , profess to be the direct 
descendants of the ancient Romans, seldom intermarry with their neighbors, and 
speak a dialect peculiarly their own. It is said that their dispositions also differ 
from the other Romans; that they are a far more hasty, passionate and revenge¬ 
ful, as they are a stronger and more vigorous race. They are very fond of keeping up 
their old national games, especially the morra. This is a game played by the men ; consists 
in holding up, in rapid succession, any number of fingers they please, calling out at the 
same time the number their antagonist shows. Simple and even dull as this seems 
to us, the Trasteverini play it with such eagerness and violence that they get terribly 
excited, and when disagreements come up, and they must from the rapidity with which the 
game is played, the men are in a perfect frenzy and often end their dispute with murder. 
The buildings in this quarter are among the most interesting in Rome, especially the 
church and convent of the sweet virgin saint, Cecilia; the immense Hospital of St. Michele. 
At the upper end of the Via Lungaretta, which runs across this quarter from the river, 
is the Church of St. Maria in Trastevere, which is said to be the first church in Rome, 


222 


Cities of the World. 


dedicated to the Virgin and contains a great deal that is both beautiful and interesting. 
Above this quarter of the sons of ancient Rome lies the Janiculan, “ the steep crest of a hill 
which rises abruptly on the west bank of the Tiber.” Between them runs a section of 
the ancient Aurelian wall, with the Porta Settimiana, on the site of the gardens of Sep- 
timius Severus, and at the head of the Via Lungara, a street which is three-fourths of a 
mile long and occupies the whole length of the valley between the Tiber and the Janicu¬ 
lan. On one side stand the villa and gardens of the Farnesina y a sixteenth century 



IN THE FORUM, LOOKING TOWARD THE CAPITOL. 

residence, which the Duca di Ripalda now owns with all its treasures and famous Raf- 
faelle frescoes. Opposite, on the western side of the Lungara is the Corsini Palace, where 
Queen Christiana of Sweden lived in the latter part of 1600, and gathered about her 
some of the finest collections that have ever been in the city ; although the present pic¬ 
ture gallery and magnificent library, with all the other Corsini collections, have been 
founded since the queen’s death. The Corsini Gardens extend over the Janiculan to- 





























Rome. 


223 


the present wall ; above the western end is the Villa Lante, and around on many sides 
are other old buildings and celebrated churches partly or wholly in ruins. Further on is 
the Torlonia museum, containing a magnificent collection of sculpture, which has been 
formed within the last thirty or forty years and is beautifully arranged in seperate cabinets. 
From several places on the top of this hill, especially near the northern end, where 
the Church of St. Onofrio stands, the view of Rome is lovely. The garden of the con¬ 
vent attached to this church is a “ lovely plot of ground fresh with running streams ; near 
a picturesque group of cypress are remains of the oak planted by Torquato Tasso, the 
great Italian poet who died here in 1595. ” 

One of the principal entrances of the Catacombs is on the Janiculan. These under¬ 
ground passages extend in almost every direction, and cross each other like the 
streets of a town. How this subterranean 
net-work came to be here, it is not known, 
only guessed ; they have probably been for 
ages. They are principally connected with 
the early Christians, but long before their 
time it is said that they were the secret 
dwellings of thieves and outlaws. In some 
gardens adjoining the Appian Road, about 
two miles from Rome, is the entrance to the 
most celebrated of the catacombs. A flight 
of steps leads down to an oblong chamber 
with an arched doorway. Galleries about 
eight feet high and five feet wide branch 
out with twists and turns in all direc¬ 
tions, damp and black in their darkness, 
the passages often broadening into wide 
and lofty chambers, containing tombs, 
inscriptions, and even frescoes on the 
walls, and when examined by the light of a torch are seen to have been made by the 
Christians during the persecutions of the Church. 

At the head of the Janiculan, within its own wall, and off the north-westerly angle of 
the Tiber, is the Borgo, or Leonine city, wherein are great St. Peter’s and the Castle of 
St. Angelo. These walls, ten thousand eight hundred feet in circumference, were begun 
in 846 by Pope Leo IV., to defend St. Peter’s against the Saracens, and, being finished, 
were consecrated six years later, “ by avast procession of the whole Roman clergy, bare¬ 
footed, with their heads strewn with ashes.” In about the center of this inclosure is the 
basilica of St. Peter, the most famous church in Christendom. From afar its great 
dome attracts the eye, and under its enormous wings the whole city seems gathered ; 



TOMBS, IN THE CATACOMBS. 




224 


Cities of the World. 


but nearer by it are the surroundings that attract your attention more than the church, 
itself. Going toward it from the east, with the minor church and a great hospital on either 
hand, at the end of the Piazza Rusticucci, is the opening of the magnificent semi-circu¬ 
lar colonnades, which branch out from the palace-like fa£ade and majestic dome of the 
mighty church. The colonnades are supported by four rows of columns, inclosing space 
enough between the two inner rows for two carriages to pass abreast, and are like two 
sickles, some one says, with the straight galleries uniting them to the fa£ade of the church 
for handles. Including the column and the sculptured entablatures above them, these 
porticos are sixty-four feet high, and yet every thing is so well proportioned in correspond¬ 
ing colossal size that “ from the center of the Piazza, the whole effect is light, airy and 
graceful ; under any circumstance it never seems crowded, and never desolate.” 
The center of the piazza, or the vast space thus inclosed, is marked by a red 
granite monument called the Obelisk of the Vatican. This was brought to Rome 
from Heliopolis by Emperor Caligula; it adorned the circus of Nero, and in 
1586 was placed in front of St. Peter’s, with the fountains on either side. There 
is no point on the piazza from which the whole of the sublime proportions of the 
dome can be seen ; and as you walk across the long stretch of pavement, fresh with the 
“ silver spray of glittering fountains,” the lofty facade with its two stories and attic, its 
windows and nine heavy balconies, “ awkwardly intersecting the Corinthian columns 
and pilasters,” is not majestic and imposing, but just bunglingly big. A broad flight of 
steps that lead up to the five entrances of the vestibule are adorned with statues ; the 
central door is of bronze, made for the old basilica that stood here in the first half of the 
fifteenth century. From the loggia above the pope gives the Eastern benediction. “ The 
vestibule is a noble and spacious building in itself. Standing in the middle, a vista in 
architecture of more than two hundred feet, on either hand, is open to the eye, set with 
pieces of statuary or mosaics, while in front the heavy double curtain separates you 
from the interior. Beyond the curtain St. Peter’s is “ resplendent in light, magnificence 
and beauty, one of the noblest and most wonderful works of man.” The nave does not 
seem over six hundred feet long and four hundred feet high, and it is only as you go 
through it step by step that you half realize its actual beauty and extent. The grand 
central nave, with its arcades on either side, and its noble roof, is shaped like a semi¬ 
circular vault, coffered and gilded ; and below it, the pavement is inlaid with colored 
marble, and on all sides there seems no limit to the number and the beauty of the 
statues and ornaments. The most sacred spot in the church is the tomb of St. Peter, at 
the foot of a double flight of steps, leading from the ground floor. Attached to the 
balustrade, a circle of eighty-six golden lamps is always burning above the tomb and 
close to the high altar, which, except on most solemn occasions, when the pope celebrates 
the mass, is never used but kept covered with a bronze and gilded ornamented canopy 
called the Baldacchino , an unsightly thing, beneath the truly glorious canopy of the 



SISTINE CHAPEL 




























































































































































































































226 


Cities of the World. 


cupola. Under this majestic vault, “ with the tribune before us, and the transept on 
either hand, we are face to face with the sublime genius of Michael Angelo ; ” it is the 
Mount Olympus in a world of art, for all around the main body of the church are side 
chapels, splendid in themselves, filled with pictures and statuary and any of them large 
enough to serve for an independent church. The dome of St. Peter’s is double ; and 
between the outer and inner wall is a series of winding passages and staircases, by which the 
top is reached, while the visitor is continually filled with fresh wonder over this great edifice. 
“ From the galleries inside the view of the interior below is most striking,” like a world of 
tiny people moving among miniature images men and women are half lost in immeasur¬ 
able depths of architecture, almost impossible to believe, for the ascent has been made very 
gradually on the paved incline. The roof of the church is like a small village with its domes 
and workmen’s houses ; its broad walks, a playing fountain and many other signs of life. 
Here are the two cupolas that flank the fagade and five smaller ones, crowning the 
chapels “ like dwarfs clinging about a giant’s knee.” There is a railway-—unseen from 
below—running around the base of the ball on top of the great dome, which in a short 
time affords a wonderful view of Rome, and “the Campagna, the Tiber, the distant 
Mediterranean, the Apennines, the Alban Sabine hills, and the isolated bulk of Soracte.” 
Even above this the interior of the ball may be ascended, and still further an outside 
ladder leads to the dizzy height at the foot of the cross. Adjoining St. Peter’s on the 
upper side is the Vatican, entered through the magnificent Scala Regia , or Royal 
Staircase, probably the finest in the world. Beyond the Swiss guard in the quaint 
picturesque uniform designed for them by Michael Angelo, at the great bronze doors 
lies the Sistine Chapel, celebrated the world over for the frescoes of Michael Angelo. 
The Vatican comprises the palace of the pope, a library and a museum, and is said to 
contain eleven thousand apartments. The small portion occupied by the pope is 
plain and in all things lonesome and unprincely ; but the museum of art is the finest in 
the world, in sculpture surpassing all other collections put together, as it outrivals every 
gallery in containing among its paintings the greatest works in fresco of those two 
masters, superlative Raffaelle and Michael Angelo. The Vatican gardens cover almost 
one-quarter of the Borgo within the north-western wall; it is a common saying in Rome 
that the Vatican with its gardens and St. Peter’s occupies as much space as the city of 
Turin. The broad street that leads to the castle of St. Angelo, leads to the St. Angelo 
bridge also, and so away from the solemn to the busy and lively Rome once more. “ The 
castle of St. Angelo is but the skeleton of the magnificent tomb that was built by the 
Emperor Hadrian, because the last niche in the imperial mausoleum of Augustus 
was filled when the ashes of Nerva were laid there.” Between the Tiber and the 
Corso, the most interesting place is the Piazza Navona, an irregular shaped square about 
eight hundred and fifty feet long and one hundred and eighty in width, with an 
immense fountain in the center, and several others standing about, out of which the 


Rome . 


227 



pure and abundant water gushes, which is so important a feature of all Rome. Once 
a week a vegetable market is held in this Piazza attended by the country people 
from the neighborhood in their picturesque costumes. Shops and stalls for the sale 
of all sorts of second hand articles fill every available space and display quantities 
of broken pottery, old iron, and a great variety of other trash, among 
more pretentious stores. These make little effort toward outside show, but within con¬ 
tain great bargains in pictures, engravings, 
cameos, antique gems and such things. On 
Saturdays and Sundays in the month of August 
the sluices which carry off the waters of the 
great fountain are stopped, and all the central 
portions of the Piazza are overflowed to the 
depth of one or two feet. This temporary lake 
is immediately the liveliest place in the vicinity ; 
horses, oxen and donkeys are driven into the 
cooling waters ; vehicles of all kinds, from the 
stately coach of a Roman principe to the clumsy 
wagon of a contadino, roll through them ; and 
boys with bare feet and rolled up trowsers splash 
their elders with noisy satisfaction ; while the 
outer margin of the Piazza, not reached by the 
water, and especially the capacious steps of the 
Church of St. Agnes, are occupied by crowds of 
idlers; the windows of the shops and houses 
are filled with gay faces and bright dresses ; and 
altogether the sight is one to be marked with a 
red letter in any one’s memory of Rome. About 
midway between the Piazza Navona and the 
Corso, with streets leading directly to each, is the 
Pantheon, the most perfect pagan building in 
the city. It was built twenty-seven years before 
Christ as a heathen temple ; but in a.d. 608 

was consecrated as a Christian church. “Its peasant children. 

majestic pillared portico and huge black rotunda, stand almost at the central point of 
the labyrinthine intricacies of the modern city,” a stately, unornamented, time-stained 
edifice three stories high, and crowned by a dome that has been the model of the 
best temples in the world ever since,—St. Peter’s across the river, St. Sophia’s at 
Constantinople and many others less famous. The open portico is borne by lofty 
columns and divides the temple into three naves, with great niches around the 



228 


Cities of the World. 


walls once containing statues of different gods and goddesses. “The world has 
nothing else like the Pantheon. So grand it is that the pasteboard statues over 
the lofty cornice do not disturb the effect any more than the tin crowns and hearts, 
the dusty artificial flowers and all manner of trumpery gewgaws hanging at the saintly 
shrines. The rust and dinginess that have dimmed the precious marble on the walls ; 
the pavement, with its great squares and rounds of porphyry and granite, cracked cross¬ 
wise and in a hundred directions, showing how roughly the troublesome ages have 
trampled here ; the gray dome above, with its opening to the sky, all these things make 
an impression of solemnity, which St. Peter’s itself fails to produce.” 

These austere, sublime monuments of the great city are in the strongest contrast with 
the inhabitants ; the richness and splendor are vanished from the temples, but the love of 
it remains with the people. You see it in their dress and in all their customs. “ On all 
holiday occasions they hang out from their windows strips of bright-colored cloth. They 
take great pleasure in illuminations, torch-light processions, and especially in fire-works, 
—which are nowhere more perfect—even the fuuerals share it ; those of distinguished 
people taking place at night, illuminated by torches and attended by solemn music and 
trains of ecclesiastics.” Once a year for eleven days just preceding Ash Wednesday 
this love of gayety and show reaches a climax in the Carnival, and altogether transforms 
the Corso and streets close to it. Added to the overhanging balconies—built on purpose 
for this festival—that permanently line the lofty buildings, temporary structures of wood 
fill every available place ; thus the already narrow space—for the Corso only averages 
about thirty-five feet in width—is made still smaller. They are filled with gayly dressed 
and animated people, mostly women—who have secured their places at unmentionable 
prices some time before, and intend to have the full worth of their money in fun. “ The 
street below is filled by two rows of carriages slowly moving in opposite directions and 
filled with gay occupants, while there is a motley crowd on foot of men and boys, with a 
few women, some with masks and some without, but all engaged in the common occupa¬ 
tion of pelting one another. Here the lowest ragamuffins in Rome or a milord from En¬ 
gland crowd each other in the utmost good nature, each perhaps with the same object in 
view of attracting the attention of the pretty young ladies in some balcony, half hidden 
among the gay streamers of red, yellow or blue that flutter among the heavier pieces of 
vivid colors comprising the balcony canopy or hanging from the windows adjacent. Most 
of the fun is in pelting one another ; for this there are three kinds of missiles. First come 
the confetti , or little pea-sized bits of lime, which are hurled by hand or with a kind of 
pea-shooter, or, when the fun grows more hilarious, are sent in little dipperfuls, while the 
gay antagonist holds a wire screen ready to protect his or her face from the return volley. 
But confetti-throwing is but the first stage of the fun, and is soon supplanted by coriandali y 
or missiles of flowers and bon-bons. For many days before the Carnival opens load after 
load of flowers are brought into the city, and with them the attentions of the Carnival 


Rome. 


229 


partakers begin. There are bouquets of all prices and description, some of them marvels 
of flower structures, often crowned with a living bird whose legs and wings are impris¬ 
oned in flowery bands. The candies are also of all varieties and qualities, sometimes 
put up in boxes and cones of gilded paper. Much of the cheap sugar plums 
with which the gay companies pelt each other “ fall upon the pavement, and are 
eagerly scrambled tor by the ingenuous youth of Rome, who dart in and out under the 
wheels of carriages and the hoofs of horses with a courage worthy of a better cause.” 
The sport begins at about two o’clock on each day, Sundays and Fridays excepted ; 
then the fast-filling balconies and the two straight lines of carriages begin to gather into 
one dense mass of animation ; some of course are only lookers-on ; but the majority are 
there for the fun, and many appear in plain dress, or in fancy or grotesque costumes, 
and borne upon all kinds of devices on wheels. Now a ship with showy sailors passes 
a rainbow-like balcony full of pretty girls ; and what a shower there is of sugar-plums and 
bouquets. One young lady by her looks or graceful movements attracts particular at¬ 
tention. “ Bella,” some one cries ; “ beautiful, most beautiful,” others shout, and for a 
time the gayety of the neighborhood will center at that one particular balcony, from 
which and to which will rain and hail the greatest quantity of bouquets, bonbonnieres and 
unique favors ; while a pretty play of funny maneuvers keeps all the neighborhood in 
shouts of merriment. Then the ship sails on, an ordinary carriage, an open platform or 
a moving festival takes up the merry war, and carries it along from one balcony to an¬ 
other, or extending it to carriages on the opposite line. Nearly all are grown up men 
and women, behaving like a jolly crowd of boys and girls. At five o’clock the Corso is 
cleared for the horses, mounted dragoons appear, and the carriages turn off into the 
side streets ; after none but foot passengers are left a detachment of cavalry moves slow¬ 
ly down the Corso and returns on a brisk trot. In the Piazza del Populo , but a short time 
before filled with the brilliant equipages of the proud Romans who disdained the carnival, 
a great crowd of spectators fill the ampitheater of temporary seats and look down into 
the Corso. In front of these the horses are rearing and snorting with impatience to be 
let go. When the center of the street is cleared each horse is led up by a showily- 
dressed groom, who lets go at the given signal, and the splendid animals rush down the 
narrow Corso without any riders, goaded on by sharp pointed leaden balls in their trap¬ 
pings. The people, like a vast sea, break away before the horses and close in behind 
them, taking eager interest in the result, which is declared by the judges, who sit in the 
temporary seats in the Piazza Veneziana , when the horses bring up at the other end of 
the Corso. This closes the out-door amusement of the Carnival ; the streets become as 
quiet as usual, and the sport is continued by the peasants and lower classes and people at the 
shows in the Piazza Navona, where the beautiful square is brilliantly lighted and is 
thoroughly thronged in every part and at every booth ; but most of all at the lottery 
booths, “ for lotteries to the Italian are what opium is to the Chinaman, the strongest 


230 


Cities of the World. 


appetite of his nature.” A multitude of interesting sights, day and night, belong to the 
Carnival season ; there are the picturesque peasant dances in the city squares ; the brilliant 
receptions and the balls, especially the masked balls, which really “ cap the climax ” of 
the festivities. The public masked balls are given at the two principal theaters, the 
Apollo and the Costanzi, where prizes are given for the best masks ; and the scene is 
one of many beautiful faces among the grotesque false ones, graceful forms and gay 
colors, winding in and out to the sound of dance music. 

The trade of Rome is insignificant; the manufacturers are all small and supply 



BAY OF NAPLES. 

cheap, unimportant articles, such as hats, silk scarfs, gloves, artificial feathers, false pearls, 
trinkets, and other things to attract the fancy of artists and visitors. There are three hun¬ 
dred thousand people in the city, a large number of which are artists, while another great 
class are beggars. In population the Eternal City now stands third in Italy, while Naples 
takes the lead in size as it does also in beauty. A common Italian saying is, “ See Naples 
and then die,” and true it is that the earth scarcely has a more lovely scene than the white 
and terraced crescent of the city stretched along a winding coast of the magnificent sea 




Naples . 


231 


and over the spurs of a range of semi-circular hills, commanded by rugged heights ; 
fertile plains and vine-clad slopes lie around and beyond, all under the glow or solemn 
shadow of old Vesuvius. “The extieme points of the two projecting arms which in¬ 
close the bay on the north-west and south-east are about twenty miles distant from each 
other in a straight line, similar in shape and character. The southern promontory stretches 
further out to sea ; but the island of Ischia corresponds to this on the north, being much 
larger and further from the land than its southern sister Capri. The cliffs that line the tide¬ 
less shore are often crowned and draped with luxuriant vegetation ; on numberless points 
stand villas, monasteries and houses linked together by a glowing succession of orange 
groves, vineyards, orchards and gardens. Of all this fertile and populous shore, swarm¬ 
ing everywhere with life and glittering with dwellings, Naples is the core.” Although 
this is a city where “ the sun shines his brightest, and the zephyrs blow their softest; the 
sea is of the deepest blue and the mountains the most glorious purple, with the finest 
fish, sweetest fruit and best game, Naples is still an ill-built, ill-paved, ill-lighted, ill- 
drained, ill-watched, ill-governed and ill-ventilated city,” whose narrow, crowded, dirty 
streets, with scarcely any sidewalk, and only lava-paved roadways, with their balconies 
almost meeting overhead, have nothing imposing, or striking, except the smells. One 
magnificent museum contains a great collection of ancient art works and curiosities from 
Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the theater of San Carlo is said to be one of the finest 
in the world. There are several interesting ancient castles here, many palaces, more 
than three hundred churches, several colleges and libraries, and a very fine aquarium. 
But none of these are so interesting as the people of Naples, especially along the sea¬ 
shore. 

All along the quays are rows of wooden counters or tables stand covered with 
fish, oysters, and mussels, and protected from the sun by an awning slanting down 
toward the rear. Fruit, roasted chestnuts, and other things to eat are offered for sale 
by the market women in their quaint costumes. Boats, rowed by scantily dressed men 
in red caps, are constantly putting off and coming in with their loads of passengers or 
goods for the strange little chaises that roll up and down or stand about in great num¬ 
bers hitched to their small but fast going single horse. The quays, like the open squares 
and one or two of the streets that are broad enough, are filled with a moving and ever 
changing and interesting crowd. Now it is a group around some Improvisator , listening 
with delight to the ragged reciter of whole cantos of Orlando Furioso ; again it is some 
Policinella , whose antics form the attraction. Under the arcades of the Piazza delMuni- 
cipio, a “ Public Letter Writer ” is bending over his task.' Notwithstanding that there 
must be some grounds for the general belief that all Neapolitans are lazy, the most reli¬ 
able travelers say that it is as busy and industrious looking as any town in Europe. Yet 
it manages to have a good many idlers ; for one thing it is over populated ; five hundred 
thousand people being more than it can keep occupied, and as their support costs next 


232 


Cities of the World. 


to nothing, very many are not at all backward in accepting a large portion of nothing 
for their allowance. These make up, not the largest class of Neapolitans, perhaps, 
but certainly the best known to foreigners,—“ careless and idle ; good natured and 
thieving; kind hearted and lying; always laughing except if thwarted, when they 
will stab their best friend without a pang.” Whole families live huddled together 
without cleanliness or decency, and the air resounds at once with blows and cries, 
singing and laughter. There are thousands who consider a dish of beans at mid¬ 
day to be sumptuous fare, while the horrible condiment called Pizza —made of dough 
baked with garlic, rancid bacon, and strong cheese—is esteemed a feast. Every one in 
the town who is not working, and as many as possible of those who are, spend the day 
in the open air, encumbering the narrow streets with their chairs, lathes, carpenters' 
tables, or cobblers’ stalls. Every body seems to be amused, and occupies himself in 
amusing his neighbors. He feels himself to be in the happiest place in the world and 
holds a poor opinion of most other lands. The Lazzaroni , once a common sight in 
Naples, lounging about half-clad, are gone now, with many other “institutions” that 
belonged to the city before the present government. Although the new government’s 
improvements have caused some serious losses to the beauty and attraction of Naples, it 
has done considerable good too ; it has opened the noble terrace of the Corso Vittorio 
Emanuele, where the fine Hotel Bristol stands, and a glorious view is given of the town 
and bay below. Above is the old fortress of St. Elmo, now used as a prison, and near that 
the ancient convent of St. Martin, which is now being altered for a National Museum 
and Library. Most of the better classes of Neapolitans are poor nobles, whose motto is 
“ all for show.” They are fond of bright colors in their dress ; soldiers in gay uniforms ; 
and wherever they can, Neapolitans display all the richness and splendor possible, some¬ 
times at the sacrifice of a good many everyday comforts. The nobles are often of 
worthless character, lazy, fond of gambling, and making no pretense of following a pro¬ 
fession. The manufacturing class is comparatively small, and are engaged in making 
macaroni and vermicelli, which are the principal food of the poor people in Italy, and 
are sent from Naples to all parts of the world. Among the other manufactories the 
principal things made are silk cloth, carpets, glass, perfumery, porcelain, and glass. 

Milan, the second city of Italy, is in the northern part ; it stands in the Lombard 
plain below the Alps, and is the center of the country’s inland trade. It is also a very 
pleasant city, with its broad streets lined with fine buildings on either side. Although 
it is not a desirable place of residence, as the summers are extremely warm, and the 
winters severely cold, about three hundred and fifty thousand people live here ; the 
most thickly settled part is surrounded by a canal, and outside of that, inclosing the 
suburbs, is a wall with twelve gates. The great center of interest at Milan must always 
be its glorious Gothic cathedral. It is built of brick covered with marble. One part 
after another having been added at so many different times the marble is of many 


Milan. 


233 


shades, and its walls are so covered that its great extent may best be measured by the 
roof, although even this is overpowering with “ rich ornaments, delicately carved flying 
buttresses, and a wilderness of pinnacles.” The niches and spires are occupied by 
about three thousand marble statues, making the exterior seem at a little distance “ like 
a piece of jeweler’s work magnified a million of times.” It is like being in another world 
to walk among these statues on the roof—this quiet marble assembly—this 

“ aerial host 

Of figures human and divine.” 

From the gallery of the octagon tower above there is a living picture before you of the fair 
broad plains of Lombardy, glittering with towns and villages closed in on the north and 
west by the eternal snows of the Alps. The first appearance of the interior is most strik¬ 
ing—the great height of the pillars, their exquisitely sculptured capitals, the great solem¬ 
nity and the rich effect of light which streams in from the upper windows upon the golden 
pulpits at the entrance of the choir form a picture to be revisited again and again. 
A far older church than the cathedral, and in many things the most remarkable 
in Milan, is the Church of St. Ambrogio, which is named after its founder, who 
dedicated it to All Saints in 387. The exterior, of redbrick with stone pillars and arches, 
is highly picturesque. On the north is a fine colonnaded portico, and the atrium or 
vestibule is surrounded by open arches, with ancient inscriptions, altars and fragments 
of carving filling the arcades.” Many very interesting and valuable relics and works of 
art are kept within, and besides these and the beauty of the church itself, it is famous as 
being the place where St. Augustine was baptized and where the grand and familiar 
anthem of the Te Deum was first recited by Ambrose and Augustine as they advanced 
to the altar. 

Among many other great and venerable churches in Milan, are those of St. Eustorgio, 
the beautiful Maria delle Grazie, which was built in the fifteenth century, and adjoins 
the convent, where, in the old Refectory, is the most famous picture in the world, 
the “ Last Supper ” by Leonardo da Vinci. 

Behind this church, occupying a large palace, entered on the other side, is the 
celebrated Ambrosian Library, founded in 1609 by the then Archbishop of Milan. 
Beside some of the most valuable and most ancient of vellums and manuscripts, the 
Library has a fine picture gallery of some of the old Italian masters. 

The largest gallery in the city is the Brera in an old Jesuit palace, also occupied by 
a scientific institute, a library, a museum of coins and medals and an archaeological mu¬ 
seum. 

In visiting all these and the countless other sights of Milan, the great square called 
Cathedral Square would become very familiar, and here, if any where, you would occa¬ 
sionally see “ nurses and peasant women, with the picturesque national head-dress of 
silver pins arranged in a circle like rays of the sun,” once characteristic of the city. 


234 


Cities of the World. 


Here is the entrance to the Gallery of Victor Emmanuel, which is the handsomest and 
loftiest arcade of shops in the world. The houses are eighty feet high, covered in with 
glass the entire height, and occupied by such brilliant stores and restaurants that in the 
evening when it is lighted up, and filled with people walking or sitting under the cafes, 
it looks like an immense ball-room. The other entrance is on the Piazza della Scala , 
and faces the magnificent theater of La Scala, which is large enough to hold nearly four 
thousand people. San Carlos at Naples is the only finer one in Italy. 

Toward the westward from Milan is Turin, which though next in population to 
Rome, is said to cover less ground than the Borgo. 

Turin is now one of the most prosperous of European cities ; it is regularly built 
like an American city, with long straight streets, traversing it from end to end, and 
each at right angles with its neighbor. Many of the streets are lined with colonnades 
which form a pleasant shade from the scorching sun in summer ; those near the palace 
being a favorite resort for the fashionable people, are crowded after sunset, with stylish 
civilians and showily dressed officers. The streets, in spite of their regularity have a 
picturesqueness of their own from the richness with which the palaces are decorated, and 
the ever present arcades. While the bitter Alpine winds make it piteously cold in win¬ 
ter, in summer it is a very attractive place, especially by the river Po, among the beauti¬ 
ful wooded hills on the further bank or in the charming walks of the Public Garden, 
near the palace of II Valentino. From the station the Via Roma leads into the heart of 
the town, passing through the Piazza St. Carlo , surrounded by open colonnades filled 
with book stalls, and ending in the square occupied by the old castle of Turin, called the 
Palazzo Madama, or the palace of the Queen Mother. Its high tiled roofs are crowded 
with chimneys, rich fragments of terra cotta cornice, and four clumsy brick towers, two 
of which are somewhat modern and two very quaint and perforated with holes, which 
with the other nooks and corners are always crowded with birds. 

Behind the castle the handsome modern palace and the cathedral tower rise. The 
armory, which is one of the few places of real interest in Turin, is in the wing of the 
Palace, although the Egyptian Museum, the Pinacotica or picture gallery, and some of 
the other collections in the Academy of Sciences are said to be fine. “ The avenue 
along the river-side leads to the Public Gardens, where, beside the dressed walks, there is 
a park of elm and chestnut glades, with wide, green lawns undulating to the water’s side, 
and lovely views up the still reaches of the river, fringed with tufted foliage which is re¬ 
flected in its water ; or into bosky valleys and the hills on the opposite bank, with old 
turreted villas and convents rising on the different heights and looking down into the 
luxuriance of wood and vineyard lying between. Beyond all rises the great church of 
La Superga on its blue height, and pleasure-boats with white sails or striped awnings, 
give constant life to the scene. At the end of the gardens, where they melt into the 
open hay fields—completely in the country though so close to the town—the grand 


Palermo. 


235 


old Palace of II Valentino rises from the river bank. It is of rich red stone, with 
high pitched roofs, tall chimneys, and heavy cornices. In view of all this those who 
see Turin in May when the white and crimson chestnuts are in bloom, can not fail 
to call it a picture of perfect Italian loveliness.” 

In the number of inhabitants—two hundred and fifty thousand—Turin’s twin city 
in Italy is Palermo, on the northern coast of the island of Sicily. The situation of 
Palermo is wonderfully beautiful, surrounded by a vast garden of orange and olive trees 
which fill the Conca d'Oro or Golden Shell, as the lovely plain is called which is bounded 
by the red crags of Monte Pellegrino on the west, and the wooded Capo Zafferano on 
the east, and backed by Monte Griffone and other dark mountains of rugged outline. 
“ The hills on either hand descend upon the sea with long-drawn delicately broken and 
exquisitely tinted outlines.” 

“ Within the cradle of these hills and close upon the tideless water, lies the city,” 
with a few great streets running across a labyrinth of alleys. “ The main street, like all 
the main streets of Italian towns, is the Corso Vittorio E 7 nanuele; the houses for the most 
part are stately, with bold cornices and innumerable iron balconies. The ground floors 
are almost always used for the mean-looking shops, of which the fronts, eastern fashion, 
are generally an open arch. The first floor is the piano nobile or family residence ; the 
second and third floor are usually let as lodgings ; wooden lattices, too, are often seen, 
belonging to convents frequently far in the background, but arranged to allow the nuns, 
themselves unseen, to look down on all that is going on. Here and there a church 
breaks the line of houses, plain enough outside, but within covered with Sicilian jaspers, 
of which there are fifty-four varieties—rich to a fault.” The palaces and even more par¬ 
ticularly the churches of Palermo are very fine. 

Next in size to these come another pair of cities. Florence, in the upper part of 
central Italy and Genoa, the Mediterranean port and fortress for the north, each with 
about two hundred thousand people. 

“ Of all the fairest cities of the earth, 

None is so fair as Florence 
* * * * Search within, 

Without; all is enchantment! 'Tis the Past 
Contending with the Present ; and in turn 
Each has the mastery.” 

So, many writers, in verse and in prose, have celebrated the City of Flowers and 
Botany Bay of society. Like most of the Italian cities its beauty is more in the situation 
and surroundings than the city itself. It stands at the central point in that basin of the 
Arno which extends from Arezzo to Pisa, and in the midst of a high plain with picturesque 
swells of land all about it. “ The radiant loveliness of this country renders Florence the 


236 


Cities of the World. 


most delightful of all Italian cities for a spring residence, and no one who has once seen 
the glorious luxuriance of the flowers which cover the fields and gardens, and lie in 
masses for sale on the broad gray basements of its old palaces, can ever forget them.” 
Firenze la bella, Florence the beautiful, the Florentines call their beloved city ; nor is 
this confined to the distant view ; the walks, the gardens, the palaces, and their superb 
galleries are in themselves beautiful enough to enrich a dozen ordinary cities. The gal¬ 
leries and museums are due for 
the most part to the Medici family, 
who were the first rulers after 
Florentia —the flourishing—ceased 
to be a republic. After the 
Medici, the Austrian Grand Dukes 
encouraged art and beauty in the 
city, so that even now, more than 
three hundred and fifty years after 
the fall of the city’s independence, 
it contains great palaces filled with 
inexhaustible treasures, suited to 
almost every taste. “Other, 
though not many, cities have his¬ 
tories as noble, treasures as vast, 
but no other city has them living 
and even present in her midst, 
familiar as household words, and 
touched by every baby’s hand and 
peasant’s step, as Florence has.” 
The city lies mainly on the up¬ 
per bank of the Arno ; its streets 
are generally narrow, running be¬ 
tween massive and rather gloomy 
buildings, and past church fronts, 
often unfinished. Avenues run 
along the quays, and in irreg- 
the leaning tower, pisa. ular stripes through the heart of the 

city. Most of the celebrated palaces are near the center of town, mainly in the vicinity 
of the famous Lung ’ Arno , where the houses rising out of the river are “ bright with soft 
tints of color, irregular, picturesque, various, with roofs at every possible elevation, the 
outline broken by loggias, balconies, projecting walls, quaint cupolas and spires ; the 
stream flowing full below, reflecting the whole picture even to the clouds on the blue 




















LOGGIA DE LANZI 
























































































238 


Cities of the World. 


over-arching sky.” Almost on the quay is the celebrated Uffizi Palace, with its stately 
porticos and open arches toward the river, set with great Florentine heroes in marble ; 
above, story after story rises in massive stately beauty, stretching on to the Piazza of the 
Signoria, to the Vecchio Palace, with its “enormous projecting battlements and lofty 
square bell tower stuck upon the walls in defiance of proportion, partly overhanging 
them.” Uffizi is an immense palace over three hundred years old, and filled with most 
precious books, letters, and papers in the library, paintings, statuary, and other riches in 
the corridors, halls, and, above all, in the famous Tribune. This is an eight-sided 
room, about twenty feet across. The floor is paved with rich marbles, and the vaulted 
ceiling is inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The light, which comes from above, falls on some 
of the most remarkable works of art ever produced. Here are the beautiful Venus de 
Medici, the Knife Grinder, the Dancing Faun, and other sculptures known by name and 
by copies all over the world ; on the walls are hung paintings of the great masters, Raphael, 
Titian, Michael Angelo, and Correggio. The Palazzo Vecchio della Signoria was built in 
1298. A magnificent staircase leads from the court up to the vast hall in which Savona¬ 
rola met with the citizens in his earnestness to restore their ancient liberties ; from the 
tower you see the prison of the great Florentine reformer, and every step you take from 
the vestibule to the halls, through all the corridors, and even into the beautiful, solemn little 
colonnaded inner court, is upon historic ground. If you are acquainted with the city’s 
history, there is not a spot that will not remind you of the events that took place here 
during all the ages that the Signorian Palace was the center of the political life of the 
Florentines. In front of the Vecchio Palace is the sunlit Piazza della Signoria, which is 
the center of Florentine life. Until the recent change in the Italian Government, it had 
for two hundred years been called the Grand Duke’s Square, but it is now given back its 
original name. This is like an open-air art gallery of sculpture and architecture. On 
the east is the grand old palace of the Signoria. On the south is the Loggia de ’ Lanzi , or 
gallery of the (Swiss) lancers who attended Cosimo I., and on the other sides are narrow 
streets and quaint buildings, with tablets marking their historical associations, while in 
the center is the great Fountain of Neptune, and hard by a grand equestrian statue of 
Cosimo I. In the Loggia , which consists of three open arches inclosing a platform raised 
by six steps above the square, stand some of the finest statues in Florence. It is a 
strange sight, these works of genius standing in the midst of the coming and going of 
all the every-day kife in the busiest square in Florence, which has seen many remarkable 
events beside the closing scene in Savonarola’s life. Several of the narrow, closely-built 
streets opening here reach the Diiomo —cathedral—which, westward of the Piazza della 
Signoria, stands in about the center of the city. This was begun in 1298, the same year 
as the Vecchio, to be, the builder said, “ the loftiest, most sumptuous edifice that human 
invention could devise or human labor execute.” Centuries have passed since it was fin¬ 
ished, and sometimes with a heavy hand on the great works of Florence, but even yet the 






















THE CAMPANILE 


































































































240 


Cities of the World. 


cathedral stands in wonderful beauty. The regular side walls are encrusted with 
precious marbles and filled with sculpture like the apse with its buttresses. 
A small dome is at the South, above which rises the largest dome in the whole world. A 
century later Michael Angelo, on his way to Rome to build St. Peter’s, looked at this 
noble work of Brunelleschi, the architect, and said. “ Like you I will not be ; better, I can 
not be.” The interior of the Cathedral is disappointing at first. The somber brown 
pillars and arches, and walls bare of enrichment or decoration seem extremely meager ; 
but by degrees you come to enjoy the simple grandeur of the broad arches and magnifi¬ 
cent dome and feel that all the color that is necessary comes in through those little jewel¬ 
like windows. At one corner of the Cathedral, stands the Campanile , or Bell-tower of 
Giotto—the pride of the city. It is a square structure nearly three hundred feet high, 
with a heavy cornice and other striking Grecian features, in the midst of which are tier 
after tier of Gothic windows. Mr. Ruskin says this is the one building in the world 
where Power and Beauty are highly developed and combined,—“ the model and mirror 
of perfect architecture.” Across the square in front of the Cathedral and Campanile, is 
the Baptistry of St. John, which is famous for its three sets of bronze doors, one of which 
—the eastern gates—Michael Angelo said were worthy to be the gates of Paradise. They 
quite overshadow the rich mosaics on the floor and ceilings of the Baptistry, or the frescoes 
round the walls. They are not large, but the delicate and perfect workmanship of the 
little bronze figures in relief tell in bronze the stories of the Baptist. A little west¬ 
ward of the Cathedral is the Church of St. Lorenzo, interesting for its association with 
the great Medici family, and rich m the works of Michael Angelo and other masters 
of sculpture. From here one of the widest and the busiest streets in Florence runs, as 
straight as an old Italian street can so long a distance, to the Ponte Vecchio —Vecchio 
Bridge—which is the most famous of the six crossing the Arno at Florence, and leads to 
a smaller part of the city lying on the right bank of the water. The Ponte Vecchio is at 
the head of the long and broad Via Romana, which crosses this upper part of Florence, 
and lined with palaces ends at the Roman Gate in the north-eastern angle and the 
fortifications. Not far above the bridge is the huge, imposing structure of the Palazza 
Pitti. Its great fapade four hundred and sixty feet long is of three stories, each forty 
feet high, surmounting a basement and huge blocks of stone. There is no palace in 
Europe to compare to it for grandeur, though many may surpass it in elegance. Built 
in 1441 by the treacherous Luca Pitti for a residence, it soon passed out of his family and 
after long serving for the palace of the Grand Dukes, it has now become the property 
of the Italian government. Its chief use is as a fitting storehouse for some of Florence’s 
treasures of art, although there are apartments occasionally occupied by the King. This 
palace is connected with the Vecchio by a long passage built by the Medici in imita¬ 
tion of the passage which Homer described as uniting the palace of Hector to that of 
Priam. It was also intended as a means of escape if required ; it is now an additional 


I 



PONTE VECCHIO. 
































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































242 


Cities of the World. 


art gallery which forms a delightful walk, especially in wet weather, through a long 
avenue of art treasures that it begins and ends in a museum. Behind the Pitti Palace, 
from the Arno to the Roman Gate, extend the famous Boboli Gardens. In front of the 
palace is an amphitheater of seats, raised one above the other, whence walks, between 
clipped avenues of bay and ilex, lead to the higher ground, where are the Fountain of 
Neptune, statuary and the little meadow called V Uccellaja , from its bird snares. From the 
high places in the gardens the view of Florence makes a pleasant picture of the fair city 
to be always carried in the memory. Genoa has been called the key-note of her coun¬ 
try. “No place is more entirely imbued with the characteristics, the beauty and the 
color of Italy. Its ranges of marble palaces and churches rise above the blue waters of 
its bay, interspersed with the brilliant green of orange and lemon groves, and backed by 
swelling mountains ; it well deserves its title of Genoa the Superb.” From the rail¬ 
way from Savona you see “ the queenly city, with its streets of palaces rising tier above 
tier from the water, girdling with the long lines of its bright white houses, the vast sweeps 
of its harbor, the mouth of which is marked by a huge natural mole of rock, crowned by 
a magnificent light house tower.” 

This is the city of Columbus, the one above all other Italian cities to which we 
Americans feel the nearest. Along the edge of the port all the principal hotels are 
ranged beyond the high terrace of white marble. Many days may be spent in the city 
among its glorious palaces filled with treasures, or walking about the streets sight-seeing. 
The Jewelers’ Street is bright with shops where the Genoese coral, fantastic silver 
and gold filagree-work and many other rare and beautiful ornaments are for sale. Then 
there are the two Cathedrals and Churches of St. Matthew, the beautiful palaces, 
especially Spinola, with the frescoes in its grand entrance court, its rooms opening on the 
marble terrace ; Doria Tursi with its hanging gardens, its statuary, and mosaics, bronzes 
and statuary ; the Red Palace, containing pictures and a valuable library ; and the Balbi, 
entered by a most lovely court, inclosed by triple rows of slender columns, through which 
a brilliant orange garden is seen. This is the most comfortable and well furnished of all 
the Genoese palaces. The family live in the upper apartments, but generously allow it to 
be shown to strangers. Besides these there are many others, and as you walk along some 
of the streets—especially the Strada Nuova and Strada Balbi —it seems as if each new 
palace is nobler than the last. Then there are other narrow streets in the strongest con¬ 
trast, with “ great heavy stone balconies one above another, doorless vestibules, massively 
barred lower windows, immense public staircases ; thick marble pillars and vaulted 
chambers. The terrace Gardens lying between the houses, have their green arches 
of the vine, and groves of orange trees, and blushing oleanders in full bloom, twenty, 
thirty, forty feet above the street; the steep, uphill streets of palaces with marble terraces 
look down into close by-ways ; and a rapid passage” carries you “from a street of 
stately edifices into a maze of the vilest squalor, steaming with unwholesome stenches 



CHAPEL OF THE MEDICI AT SAN LORENZO. TOMBS OF THE LAST OF THE MEDICI. 










































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































244 


Cities of the World. 



and swarming with half naked children." The poorest and most populous quarter of 
Genoa is made up of “ narrow alleys and tall houses, where cats can jump from roof to 
roof across the way and where only a narrow strip of blue sky shines down upon the 
darkness." Here you see a “wonderful novelty of every thing,—jumbling of dirty 
houses, passages more squalid and close than any in St. Giles’s (London), or in Old 
Paris ; in and out of which not vagabonds, but well-dressed women with white veils and 
great fans are passing and repassing." There is a “ bewildering vision of saints' and 

virgins’ shrines at the street corners ; 
of great numbers of friars, monks and 
soldiers ; of red curtains waving at the 
door-ways of churches ; of fruit stalls, 
with fresh lemons and oranges hanging 
in garlands made of vine leaves. The 
houses are immensely high, painted in 
all sorts of colors, and are in every stage 
of damage, dirt and lack of repair. 
They are commonly let in floors or flats. 
There are but few street doors ; and 
the entrance halls are, for the most part, 
looked upon as public property." 

Lastly among Italy’s great cities is 
Venice, the queen city of the world. 
Volumes have been written in prose and 
verse on its charms ; book after book 
has been made on its history, and thou¬ 
sands of canvasses covered with its 
scenes ; and yet there never was a gifted 
writer, a poet or a painter who felt that 
his efforts had done justice to the charm 
of Venice. I can tell you how it lies in 
a gulf, called a lagoon, in the northern 
angle of the Adriatic, spreading its pal¬ 
aces and churches over more than sixty- 
islands of sand, marsh and seaweed, 
and I can tell you how it became a republic that once “lorded it over Italy, 
conquered Constantinople, resisted a league of all the kings of Christendom, long 
carried on the commerce of the world, and bequeathed to nations the model of the 
most stable government ever framed by man ; " all this and many more things about the 
“Sea Cybele " may be read again and again, and yet Venice is unknown to all who have 


THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS, VENICE 




















Venice. 


245 


never seen it and lived in it themselves. Just within the island girded lagoon, and near a 
splendid opening to the sea, something like a decanter with its neck toward the" open 
water, Venice lies, a queenly city even now, after years of decay. In all directions 
without the least regularity it is threaded with narrow canals, some finding outlet in the 
lagoon, some in each other, and some in the broad Grand Canal, which sweeps with 
many stately curves like an S reversed through the center of the city, from the railway 
station on the western limit to a great arm of the lagoon on the south. The salt waves 
of the Grand Canal lap against the marble steps of the railway station, and outside the 
portico no demonstrative hackmen are clamoring to rattle you through the streets of the 
city ; but like a row of sable hearses, innumerable black gondolas are waiting to float you 
off into the green water. 

Your senses grow be¬ 
wildered by the lights 
above and below, the 
dense shadows from 
great buildings on the 
brink, or the grave-like 
darkness of the small 
canals, the splashing of 
an oar or a song or the 
weird cries of the gon¬ 
doliers, being the only 
sounds you hear. By 
and by all these things 
become familiar, and 
losing their wonder 
strengthen their charm. 

The heart of Venice 
is the Place of St. 

Mark. Of all the open 
spaces in the city that before the church of St. Mark alone bears the name 
of Piazza , and the rest are called merely cainpi , or fields. “ It is a great piazza on 
whose broad bosom is a palace more majestic and magnificent in its old age than all the 
buildings of the earth, in the high prime and fullness of their youth. Cloisters and galleries 
—so light, they might be the work of fairy hands ; so strong that centuries have battered 
them in vain. At no great distance from its porch, a lofty tower, standing by itself, looks 
out upon the Adriatic Sea. Near to the margin of the stream are two ill-omened pillars 
of red granite ; one having on its top a figure with a sword and shield ; the other a 
winged lion. Not far from these again a second tower, more richly decorated and 



THE GRAND CANAL. 
















246 


Cities of the World. 


sustaining aloft a great orb, gleaming with gold and deepest blue ; the twelve signs of the 
Zodiac painted on it, and a mimic sun revolving in its course around them ; while above 
two bronze giants hammer out the hours on a sounding bell. An oblong square of lofty 
houses of whitest stone, surrounded by a light and beautiful arcade, forms part of this 
enchanted scene ; and here and there gay masts for flags rise.” 

To come from one of the cool somber buildings “upon spaces of such sunny 
length and breadth set around with such exquisite architecture, it makes you glad to be 



WEST FRONT OF ST. MARK’S, VENICE. 

living in this world. It is the great resort, in summer and winter, by day and night ; ** 
and of all the brilliant scenes of this out-of-door-living people none can compare with St. 
Mark’s Place, “ which has a night time glory indescribable coming from the light of 
uncounted lamps ” on the surrounding buildings. There are always flocks of pigeons 
here, sacred birds in Venice, which are so tame that they never move out of your way, 
but run before you as you walk, and perch on the sill of your open window. They were 











































Venice. 


247 


formerly maintained by the republic, but are now provided for by the bequest of a 
pious lady and by the grain and peas given them by strangers.” 

The greatest object is the church on the eastern side, with its portico surmounted by 
the four famous bronze horses brought from Constantinople by the Venetians after the 
fourth Crusade, with its lofty proportions and its undescribable treasures of relics, 
mosaics and other magnificent decorations. Beside St. Mark’s stands the old Doge’s 
Palace, extending southward ; this was first built by the Doge of Venice in 820, and 
then, after being partly destroyed by the fires of 1419, another Doge rebuilt it. Mr. 
Ruskin says : “ The first hammer stroke upon the old palace was the first act of the 
period properly called the Renaissance.” This was in 1422, and so we know where and 
when that great revival of 
ancient art, which has had 
an influence on all the world, 
began. As the Palace now 
stands it is remarkable for 
one thing, that instead of 
appearing to grow lighter as 
it rises from the basement, 
the ground floor seems to be 
the most delicate part of the 
building, and as it rises 
story after story toward the 
sky, it appears to increase 
in heaviness and massive 
proportion. The Bridge of 
Sighs led from the criminal 
courts in the palace, to the 
criminal prisons on the other 
side of the Rio Canal. On 
the north side of the Piazza on the Procuratie Vecchie , then comes the Clock 
Tower, the arch beneath it leading into the busy streets of the Mercedia. On the west 
side of the square are the New Procuratie and the Library, which extends to the quay 
on the west side of the Piazzetta , which, opening from the Piazza opposite the Clock 
Tower, extends to the steps leading down to the waters of the lagoon at the end of the 
Grand Canal. Opposite the Library, the Zecca, or old Mint, adjoining the Doge Palace, 
overlooks the eastern side of the Piazzetta. There are many water cities in the world, with 
grand canals, too ; but nothing can in the least compare with that of Venice. Here the 
public gondolas cross as ferry boats, and from here, in the shade, the most picturesque 
groups may usually be seen, of facchini gossiping with the gondoliers, or market women from 



ARCADE OF THE DOGE’S PALACE IN THE PIAZZETTA. 









248 


Cities of the World. 

Mestre waiting with their baskets overflowing with fruits and greenery. Here are the 
grab-catchers, a peculiar class of beggars who pretend to pull your gondola to the shore 
for you. Along the way on either side of the broad water,rich, stately palaces lie in lines of 
mingled Gothic and Renaissance architecture, for while other cities are famed for ten or 
twelve great buildings, Venice numbers hers by hundreds. Near the center the Grand 
Canal is crossed by the famous bridge known in English as the Rialto , but spoken of by 
Venetians as the Ponte di Rialto, as this part of town was the ancient city of Venice, 
and derives its name from Rivo-alto , as the land here on the left of the canal was called. 
The footway of the famous bridge is lined with shops, and near at hand is the market 
place, which if not the scene of “ such vast multitudes that it is celebrated among the 
first in the universe,” as a writer of the sixteenth century tells us, it has still plenty of 
life and many interesting sights ; and so, if you were there in the enchanting city, 
you might go on and on, never coming to the end of the beautiful palaces and the 
galleries of paintings and sculptures they contain, or the noble and the quaint 
churches or the picturesque campi, the tortuous, narrow canals or the few close 
streets ; at other times you might spend pleasant hours out in the lagoon, visiting 
the islands or quietly floating along watching the golden sunsets, and then again it would 
be in Florian’s or some of the gayest cafes you would be enjoying your cosmopolitan 
friends, or chatting with some passing acquaintance, while the band played outside, 
and gay groups of people moved about or stood chatting all around in the caf£, the 
vestibule or on the Piazza below. 

There are about a hundred and fifty thousand people in Venice, many of whom are 
artists, others are occupied by the city trade and in commerce, which has revived very 
much since the Austrian yoke was taken off and the unhappy city joyfully became 
incorporated with the kingdom. Beautiful glassware is made here and articles of iron 
and bronze, beside machinery, silverware and mosaics. 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 


V IENNA, the great city of the Austrian monarchy, stands between the Carpathian 
mountains and the last hills of the Wiener Wald. Its broad plain is threaded by the 
arms of the Danube river, into one of which the little river, Wien, flows that gives the 
Austrian capital its name. Wien is the German for Vienna. In olden times this spot 
was first settled by the Romans. They chose it as a central point to command the 



VIENNA, FROM THE UPPER TERRACE OF BELVEDERE PALACE. 


plain between the great natural barriers of the mountains, and set up a guard here as an 
outpost to protect their possessions from the Barbarians of the North. For a long time 
the two streams formed the upper and the eastern boundaries of the town ; but it seemed 
to be in just the right place to grow. Once, in the twelfth century, its boundaries 
























Cities of the World. 


250 

became too small, and outer walls were built ; before long these could not hold the 
people, and then the city was extended on all sides in new buildings and districts or 
towns called stadte, laid out so that they could be extended almost any distance, like the 
beams of a star. Then, in 1704, when Francis Rakoczy came down with his Hungarian 
invaders, another rampart was built to inclose these “suburbs,” which had grown to be 
an important part of the city itself. So, until after the French occupation of 1809, 
when Napoleon, successful in the battles of Austerlitz and Wagram, held the city, 
Vienna had a double girdle of fortifications. After the French left, the inner lines were 
broken down and a circular set of streets built upon them, called the “ Rings,” or the 
Ringstrasse. These are very much like the boulevards of Paris, broad, handsomely 
built up and planted, forming a distinction between the old town, or “the City,” and 
the outer stadte. The other ramparts are still kept as the regular outposts, and their 
gates, which the Viennese call the Lines, lead to the real suburbs or outskirts of the 
capital. These extend for miles—sometimes to the outlying towns—in factory districts, 
quarters of plain dwelling houses and dusty, unpaved streets, or in parks surrounding 
the palatial homes of wealthy citizens and noble families, who generously keep their 
beautiful grounds open to the public. 

It is an easy matter to get from one part of Vienna to another, for the city is 
covered with a net-work of tram-ways, or street car lines, public carriages and 
omnibuses. 

The oldest, the grandest, and the liveliest part of the capital is the inner town, The 
City. Here one street only is long and straight, another is long and broad but crooked ; 
most of them stand in parallel groups of threes or fours, apparently there as the shortest 
distance from one important point to another ; the points probably being in the center 
of a block or on some particularly winding thoroughfare. These tortuous streets and 
narrow squares, or platze, are full of old relics and historic interest. They are gloomy, 
to be sure, for the great six storied stone houses are black with age, but they are 
interesting and beautiful with their grand gate-ways, their massive caryatides, their 
quaint walls set with tablets telling you of all the great men who have lived and died 
beneath their gabled roofs. Here and there, sometimes beneath the houses, covered 
passages add to the labyrinth of picturesque highways and by-ways which worm them¬ 
selves about, which meet and separate, and which carry you back with your thoughts 
for several centuries. About all the streets in the city lead to the Stephans Platz, 
where the sharp pointed watch tower of St. Stephen’s Church, rising in the mist of the 
Stadt, has thrown a slender, moving shadow over its steady growth and the solemn 
grandeur of four centuries and a half. 

The lofty western fa9ade of the church, set with ancient Roman sculptures, looks 
down severely upon some of the most crowded business places in all the city. The 
great Giant Door, which, though the principal entrance, is only used on the most solemn 



TOWN HALL AND PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, VIENNA. 








































































252 


Cities of the World. 


occasions, is guarded above by two eight-sided towers, ending in short spires. These 
are ornamented and so is the rest of the building with its long peak roof, over which the 
Austrian eagle figured in colored tiles spreads his wings ; the gables above the side 
windows are flanked at the other end by the great south tower. The graceful spire 
stretches upward for four hundred and fifty feet, in a series of arches and buttresses, 
regularly growing smaller and covered with most elaborate carving. From the top 
there is an extensive view of the picturesque walled city with its river, moats, and 
distant hills. The old church was built after Vienna became the seat of the Hapsburg 
dynasty, in the years between 1300 and 1510 ; and the solid limestone is gray with age— 
black even inside, where the “ mighty forest of pillars ” adorned with statues support 
the rich vaulting of the ceiling. The effects of light in the church are very peculiar ; 
“the great length of the central aisle is divided into three. Near the doorway all is 
bright, then comes a great space of shadow so deep you can scarcely see through it, and 
then another flood of light falls upon the chancel. All over, from the tombs of the 
dead to the traces of the old Roman temple which is said to have stood on the ground, 
St. Stephen’s is full of legends and the ‘ strange wild history of Austria.’ The bells 
were cast from Turkish cannon, captured during the famous siege, when the crescent, 
that you still see, was raised to induce the enemy to spare the grand old tower.” 

There are legends, too, connected with the building of the old church, but the story 
of the Stock im Eisen, or “ log of iron” near by, is more interesting than all. This is 
the stump of an old tree that once stood here, it is said, to mark the ancient limits of 
the Wiener Wald, the most easterly hills of the Alps ; but do you wonder why it is 
clasped round by an iron band held by a padlock, and why so many nails have been 
driven in it ? That is what belongs to the legend of Martin Mux, a Viennese locksmith’s 
apprentice, who filled in a dream an order for a great “ iron circlet to be secured by a 
padlock that no mortal strength could force and this was clasped by the customer 
around the stem of “ the old tree in the horse-market.” Years after, the principality 
offered a large reward for undoing it, at a time when Martin, who was a wanderer in 
his trade, chanced to be again in Vienna. He, of course, undid it ; and was thereupon 
acknowledged as the greatest among locksmiths, and became a man of wealth and im¬ 
portance. Ever after that all young locksmiths, starting out to make their fortunes, have 
driven a nail in the Stock iiti Eisen, for good luck. The old horse-market stands at the 
head of the Graben, a street named from the moat which lay here once, outside the city 
fortifications, in the twelfth century. The Graben is a short street, so wide that it is 
almost like a platz, lined with beautiful imposing buildings, behind its spreading trees. 
At the other end is the gay Kohlmarket. The Stephans Platz, the Graben, and the Kohl- 
market, one adjoining the other, form the great center of life, trade and fashion in the 
gay city. The Stephans Platz is the starting place for most of the omnibus lines in the 
city (bone-shaking affairs that don’t give as much convenience as they do discomfort, 


Vienna. 


253 


rolling over the uneven pavements with their load of crowded occupants) ; and in all 
three you would see the largest hotels, the finest stores, and the gayest throngs of people 
in Vienna. A constant stream of people is passing to and fro. On all sides there are 
open streets, and squares leading to and from the many important places around about. 
Most of the buildings here are new now ; with their richly decorated fronts and gor¬ 
geous store windows they make a very imposing show, mingled with great walls of 
advertisements, for which definite spaces seem to be permanently kept. In the center of 
the Graben there are two large fountains, standing above and below a large and tall group 
of statuary called the Trinity Column. The monument is a representation of figures 
among clouds, raised in 1694, by the order of Emperor Leopold I., when the dreadful 
plague was over. The cafes here, and in the Kohlmarket, are the best in the world, for 
the Viennese, who introduced this kind of refreshment-house into Europe, take pride in 
keeping ahead of all other cities in having the finest and the greatest number. A Vien¬ 
nese cafe is part of the city itself. It may be a plain looking, neat little restaurant of 
the Leopold stadt (one of the sections of the outer town), where the Magyars, Greeks, 
and Turks are dressed in their native costumes to serve, or themselves gather about the 
tables ; or a quiet little out-of-the-way place, where artists or writers go ; or large, luxu¬ 
rious institutions in the center of the city—in any of them you see a kind of life that 
belongs only to Vienna. Most of these places are open at any time ; if you stray in 
before two o’clock, you will see the little tables, and the decorations and other attractions 
offered by the proprietor, and get an excellent cup of coffee, some sweet bread and but¬ 
ter, or whatever you order that comes within the moderate caf6 bill of fare. The Vien¬ 
nese are most celebrated for their ices, which are of many different kinds, often so clev¬ 
erly combined that the waiter who takes your order is ask£d to come back with the ice, 
when he has set before you a bouquet of roses, a basket of grapes, a litter of fluffy 
puppies, or a miniature dog, so perfect that you are deceived at first sight. A good 
cafe is tempting to idleness. 

You may loiter about for a long time if you wish, reading some of the papers. 
There is an astonishing number in the cafe, not only of those published in Austria, 
but in almost every land. Perhaps there will be a few other “ stragglers ” like 
yourself, who sit about for a while, sipping some refreshment, reading or smoking; 
but the life of the cafes is to be seen between two o’clock and four in the afternoon. 
Then all the well-known places are filled—packed, rather, with a regular Viennese 
crowd, representing every nation in the world ; and while different places are fre¬ 
quented by people of a particular nation, as also of kindred professions, in the largest 
places, like the European Cafe in the Stephans Platz, or the Pfob in the Graben, you 
will see an oddly mingled throng of Turks and Greeks, Jews and Poles, Bohemians, and 
Germans of every kingdom, Europeans, Orientals, and swarthy skinned Southerners, 
too. They jostle each other in a strange looking crowd of widely different people, 


254 


Cities of the World. 


chattering in their foreign tongues, and carrying with them their national manners. 
All the men smoke ; you see them puffing at everything, from the long porcelain pipe 
to the paper cigarette. You can not but be interested, and you can not help liking them 
all; they are so kindly, so jovial and good-natured ; they will take any trouble to be 
courteous to you or to another ; they have plenty of time, and love to “ enjoy life as 
they go along ;” they come here to chat with each other, to smoke together, to read, 
hear the music, for some kind or other of enjoyment. With all Viennese, and every 
other son of the German race, their greatest pleasure is in music. Nearly all the caf£s 
have bands of music, where the beautiful wild Hungarian airs are played by women. It 
is principally dance music that they play ; more brilliant and fascinating music than you 
hear in any other place in the world. But the finest music is not in the caf£s ; it is in 
the out-of-door concerts, especially those given in the Volksgarten, by Edward Strasse and 
his merry men. The famous Johann plays only at the Emperor’s good pleasure nowadays. 
This too, is dance music, but carried to an art, soft, light, and exquisitely full of melody. 
In this paradise of spreading trees, promenades, cafe-tables out-of-doors, the genuine 
Viennese finds perfect bliss in music, tobacco, and Dreher’s beer. “ Gayety in every 
form, and at all times, and an unlimited capacity for enjoyment, seem to be the leading 
characteristic of the Austrian disposition.” You see this in the beautiful theatres they 
build, and the great numbers of concert halls, ball rooms, and other places of recreation 
abounding throughout the capital. Vienna has about ten great theatres ; three of the 
finest are in the Stadt; the chief one of all being the Imperial Opera House. It is just 
within the city limits, on one of the southern sections of the Ring strasse. The best 
operas are given here, before the largest, most fashionable and brilliant companies of 
people that gather to any of the indoor amusements. The building itself attracts a 
great many visitors. 

It has made its four architects so famous that their portraits were made in medal¬ 
lion to adorn the handsome staircase. Seven marble statues stand on the parapets and 
great winged horses are above the open balcony, or “ loggia.” This is decorated with 
fine frescoes and bronze figures, and the foyer is richly embellished with scenes from 
great operas, and busts of celebrated living composers. The interior is large enough to 
seat three thousand people, and sumptuously decorated with paintings and gilding. The 
ceilings, walls and curtain are each a separate work of art. On the main curtain is the 
legend of Orpheus, the poet who could move lifeless things by the music of his 
lyre. On the box-fronts there are thirty medallions of distinguished members of the 
Viennese opera during the last hundred years. Not even the famous boulevards of 
Paris have such a show of magnificent buildings as the Rings of Vienna. On the west 
of the city, they begin at the broad Franz-Josephs Quay, which is itself a great tree- 
planted and store-lined boulevard, skirting the lower bank of the Danube Canal—as the 
river arm is called—connecting on the east with the other end of the encircling 



THE JEWS’ QUARTER, VIENNA 































































































































































































































































































































256 


Cities of the World. 


thoroughfare. One of the best ways to see these “ lions ” of the great capital is to take 
a drive through them. There is a never ending panorama among the people, for this is a 
favorite promenade, and contains some fine stores, and of course, many good cafes ; 
but the imposing double ring of buildings that line the great tree-planted avenue on 
either side, will draw your attention from every other sight. Beginning the circuit on the 
western side of the city, first there are the extensive Rudolf barracks, where hundreds of 
soldiers are housed. Barracks are a common sight in Vienna, for Austria has one of the 
largest standing armies in the world, and in the capital alone there are soldiers enough to 
make a general parade of over twenty thousand men. Nearly opposite is the Vienna 
Exchange, or Borse, a great rectangular building, profusely set with marble, terra cotta 
and sculptures in relief, with a stately portico of arches and columns in front of a mag¬ 
nificent vestibule, leading to the vast business hall, where the Viennese stock brokers 
gather in such noisy and excited crowds as those of other countries. The first floor of 
the building is occupied by the fine Oriental museum of natural products,.manufactured 
articles, models and other things, mostly from Eastern Asia. Further along in your 
drive you would see a pretty little garden, triangularly shaped, between two fine broad 
streets, radiating westward. Above it is the Votive Church, built by the Austrian people 
in 1856 and the twenty-three following years as a votive offering for the Emperor’s escape 
from assassination in 1853. It is celebrated as one of the most beautiful of modern 
Gothic buildings. It stands alone in the center of a large platz, solitary and beautiful, 
with its richly carved body covered with tracery and statues, and its slender spires above 
the open-work towers. The statuary carving and coloring of the handsomely propor¬ 
tioned interior is finer than any thing else in Europe, except the king of cathedrals at 
Cologne. Beyond it in the Alsergrund stadt, are some of the great hospitals and cele¬ 
brated charitable institutions of the city. Opposite the point of the triangular garden, a 
narrow street in sharp contrast with all this spacious modern magnificence runs between 
the grim, black walls of the Schottenhof and the Melkerhof. These are a couple of the 
great abbeys belonging to some of the powerful religious orders or societies of Austria. 
There are many of these ancient hofe in Vienna ; they occupy some of the most valuable 
property in the city, and the inmates of any of them are enough to people a small town. 
This narrow picturesque Schottenstrasse also leads to the large irregular platz called the 
Freiung, overlooked by ancient palaces of the honored Austrian nobility, whose gal¬ 
leries of magnificent old pictures are open to the public. Underneath the National Bank 
is a Viennese bazar in a passage that makes a short cut for pedestrians to the Hof, or 
Court, an ancient square, which is one of the busy fruit markets of the city. Like 
almost every platz it is embellished with a monument and overlooked by noble mansions 
or city buildings of some special interest. The old Hof is the largest and one of the 
liveliest open spaces in Vienna; on the east it is connected with the Graben, and not far 
above it lies the Hohen Market, which was the center of ancient Vindobona , the town 


Vienna , 


257 


of the Romans. Marcus Aurelius died in the fortress that stood here, and in the third 
century it was the forum of an active Roman town and military station. But, if you 
were taking a drive through the Rings you could not have wandered away over here ; 
you would have left the Votive Church behind, and joining in the stately pageant of the 
afternoon drive, would probably have passed the grand new University building and the 
celebrated New Buildings near by, to the finely laid out grounds below,which, divided into 
exact counterparts by a wide avenue, lie between the gay drive and the imposing new 
buildings to the Rathhaus or City Hall, standing about four hundred feet back from the 
Ring strasse, apart from any other buildings. It is built in the style of the magnificent 
Italian palaces of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, everywhere lavishly adorned 
with statues, and surmounted by a tower, rising above the principal fa9ade. Below this 
there is a great reception hall, the largest of three contained in the building for festive 
times, which are in addition to all the spacious and handsome council chambers, com¬ 
mittee rooms and offices. The various apartments of the Rathhaus are built around 
seven fine open courts ; the largest one, in the center of the block, is very handsome and 
inclosed by arcades. Opposite, one of the great theaters stands in a large platz just within 
the Ring. This is the new Court Theater, which, standing alone, shows off its cold 
but stately magnificence and numerous columns to the best advantage. Below is the pretty 
green, the noble shade trees and lovely walks of the Volksgarten where another Grecian 
building stands, the Temple of Theseus, as it is called. Toward the Ring the regular 
paths and sparkling fountain of the garden are opposite the main front of the Austrian 
Houses of Parliament. This, too, is a Renaissance structure, with its fine colonnaded 
wings and sculptured pediment above the noble portico. The upper stories are in two 
parts, connected behind the portico by the lower story, in which are the offices and com¬ 
mittee rooms belonging to the Senate, occupying the upper wing, and the Chamber of 
Deputies on the left wing. The temple-like building further on is the Palace of Justice, 
where the Supreme Courts of the empire meet. The magnificent hall in the center of 
this building is one of the sights of Vienna ; in vaults underneath, some of the precious 
papers of the nation are kept. One of the chief reasons that this drive is so magnifi¬ 
cent is that nothing is crowded, all the mighty buildings are separated by wide paved 
streets and squares or prettily laid out flower-beds and lawns, where the ease-loving 
people stroll about talking in small groups or smoking in peaceful content. They wan¬ 
der through the Volksgarten or the Outer Burg Platz, adjoining, into the Ring strasse, 
crossing it, perhaps, to go through the Imperial museums, which, with a platz of flower¬ 
beds between, lie beyond the Palace of Justice. They are built alike, magnificently 
adorned with art in sculpture and painting and contain celebrated collections, one of 
Natural History and the other of Art. There is an immense building behind these that 
is not handsome, but yet very interesting : it is the emperor’s stables, where hundreds of 
blooded horses are kept for the use of the imperial family, and finer carriages than you 


Cities of the World. 


258 

have ever seen, I am sure. They are for four, six or eight horses, too many to be 
counted, and gorgeously covered with gold and rich colors. One of them is two hund¬ 
red years old and has panels decorated with paintings by the great Flemish artist Peter 
Paul Rubens. The collections in the gun-room, saddle-room, riding school and other 
apartments of the stables are also very interesting. Below the Volksgarten there 
are two other parks, lying along the Ring strasse, and extending almost to the Opera 
House. The lower one is the Court Garden, and the center one is called the Outer 
Burg Platz. The entrance to this is through a large gateway—the Burg Thor—in which 
there are five passages separated by Doric columns. It leads to that vast, irregular pile 
of the Hofburg, or imperial castle. This is commonly called the Burg, and has been 
erected, altered, and enlarged at different times since the thirteenth century, when the 
Austrian princes first set up their residence here. Here are the apartments of the 
present emperor, who has numberless other places in Vienna and elsewhere ; and the 
wings occupied by Maria Theresa and her son, Joseph II. The right wing is called 
the Schweizerhof, or Swiss Court. Adjoining is the Treasury with its halls and cham¬ 
bers lined with precious and historical collections. Heralds’ robes hang on the long 
walls of the entrance chamber, with beautiful embroidery of heraldric devices. Here 
are two silver caskets containing gifts to the emperor ; and an ebony box wherein 
are the keys of the coffins of the ancestors of the imperial house, and among some 
beautiful objects in rock crystal and smoky topaz the development of the art of the 
lapidary may be seen from the fifteenth century to modern times, while in other cases 
are magnificently rich and jeweled articles, a fountain head made of a single emerald, 
handsome tankards, drinking cups of lapis-lazuli and enameled gold, private jewels of 
the Austrian imperial family, the Austrian regalia, crown and scepter ; the celebrated 
Florentine diamond and the Frankfort solitaire diamond, stars and other emblems of 
Austrian orders. Among the other interesting buildings adjoining the Burg is the old 
Court Theater, and the Imperial Library, facing the Joseph Platz, with the bronze statue 
of the emperor on horseback. There are only a few libraries in the world more cele¬ 
brated than this with its thousands of precious volumes, manuscripts and music scores. 
The churches of the Burg are St. Michael’s, where the aristocracy attend, Burg Chapel, 
adjoining the Schweizerhof, the old court church, or Augustiner-kirche, which was 
begun in 1330 ; in the Lorettc chapel are the embalmed hearts of the royal families 
(their bodies lie in the Capuchin Church in the New Market, near by, where a long pass¬ 
age in the solemn vault is lined by almost a hundred copper coffins). Below the 
Hofburg, near the Imperial Opera House, is the old palace of the Archduke Albert, 
containing his collection of engravings and drawings, known all over the world as the 
Albertina. It is said to be the most valuable in Europe ; the old palace is connected 
by a covered passage with the Archduke’s new palace, which overlooks the court garden, 
and is adjoined by the smaller palace of the celebrated and wealthy banker, Baron 





st. Stephen’s church, Vienna 








































































26 o 


Cities of the World. 


Schey on the Ring strasse, next to the Opera. Another and a more famous imperial 
residence is Belvedere, in the south-eastern part of Vienna, between the outer stadte of 
Wieden and Landstrasse. This chateau was built for Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1693, 
and about thirty years following. It consists of two palaces called the Upper and the 
Lower Belvederes. The Upper palace is the main chateau ; it was built in the shape of 
an open triangle around a large court which opens on one of the city streets. This con¬ 
tains the Imperial Picture Gallery, which ranks among the greatest in the world. To 
the Lower Belvedere it is a pleasant down-hill walk through a large terraced garden. 
The upper part is laid out with grass plots, flower-beds, fountains and statuary, beyond 
which are shady avenues under groves of noble trees. The collections of the second 
palace are of antiquities, armor and curiosities. 

The eastern sections of the Ring strasse are not so imposing, although they too are 
lined with handsome houses, but there 'are more stores here and more business of 
buying and selling. Just below the Opera House the Wien makes a turn and flows 
about a block outside of the Rings all the way to the Danube Canal ; it is crossed 
by many bridges, leading to the Wieden stadt, on the south, where the great 
art schools and museums are, and to the Landstrasse stadt on the east. Here 
are a great many barracks and splendid institutes, with extensive gardens and long 
straight avenues lined with huge apartment houses, for the dwellings of Vienna, like those 
of all other really handsome cities, are in blocks of flats that hold many families under 
one roof. On the eastern part of the city the Wien is skirted by gardens, bordering 
the promenades along the quays ; the best of these and the most popular is the old Stadt 
park, which is a great rendezvous in summer evenings. People loiter in the vicinity of 
the music stands, in the walks beneath the trees, or in the pavilion by the pond. This, 
the Danube, and many other stretches of water are always gay in winter with skaters, 
their fanciful sledges and hearty ice sports. A bridge, crossing the stream, leads to a 
section of this park on the other side of the river, which is a charming children’s play 
ground called the Kinderpark. The buildings of the Horticultural Society are just out¬ 
side the park on the Ring, adding another to the numerous places of amusement that 
the Viennese support. This is something like the Flora near Berlin, with its capacious 
halls decked with plants and flowers, concealing bands that play the delicious 
music of celebrated composers. This is a busy part of town, where a cluster of fine 
stores fill the colonnades and a great many of the old University buildings stand, 
while the bridge at the head of the park with its steady stream of people passing 
east and west, leads to the Central Market, the Mint of Vienna, the Skating Ring, and 
the Custom House, which has three immense courts in the center, with railway tracks the 
whole length. The Ring strasse ends at the confluence of the rivers with the Franz- 
Josephs Quay in a large drilling ground in front of a magnificent set of barracks. Along 
the quay several bridges lead to the Leopoldstadt above the canal, which is famous 


Vienna . 


261 


principally for its two spacious pleasure gardens, opened to the public in about 1775, by 
their much-misunderstood Emperor, Joseph II. The Augarten lies on the north-western 
part of the Leopoldstadt, and is visited by the manufacturing people of Brigittenau, 
adjoining ; the other park is the Prater, the finest and most extensive in the city. 

It covers about four thousand three hundred acres along the eastern side of the city, 
between the canal and the main stream of the Danube. It is almost twice the size of 
Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, and is reckoned the most beautiful in Europe. For 
about two centuries before the reign of Joseph II., it had been in the possession of the 
imperial family, and used exclusively by them for a hunting ground. Much of the fine 
forest still stands, and here all the people, to whom out-door life is part of their exist¬ 
ence, may come to enjoy themselves after their own fashion. On the main street of the 
Leopoldstadt is the busy Prater strasse, which ends in the Prater stern, a circular space 
at the park entrance, from which two avenues run into the Prater, dividing it into three 
fan-shaped sections. The Haupt-allee, or principal avenue, running to the right, is the 
favorite resort of the fashionable world in May, where, beneath the quadruple row of fine 
chestnut trees, there are to be seen the beautiful horses, elegant carriages, and most 
brilliant people of the gay capital, led by the Emperor’s carriage, taking the prescribed 
drive of a mile and a half to the Rondeau , or a mile and a half further to the Lusthaus , a 
fine restaurant, where the £lite of the capital eat an ice or sip some drinks in the cool of 
the afternoon’s shade. There are three cafes in the Prater ; one is particularly attractive 
from an artificial mound opposite, with miniature lakes and waterfalls. On the 
terrace, above the Prater, is the magnificent new Stadtische Badeanstalt % a city bath. 
This includes a large swimming bath two hundred feet long and about a hundred and 
fifty broad, four smaller basins for bathers who do not swim, and an ample supply of 
private baths, in all accommodating twelve hundred persons at once. The center of the 
park, between the two allees, is known as the Volkprater or the Wurstel (buffoon park); 
this is the favorite haunt of poor people, or lower classes. There are numbers of cafes, 
restaurants, pavilions, a w/Af-theater, and other places of amusement for them ; and 
sometimes fireworks are given. This part of the park is fullest of people on Sunday and 
holiday afternoons and is one of the best places to see the great sights of Vienna, which 
are the people. The International Exhibition of 1873 was held in the Prater, where the 
large Rotunda, the Art Hall, and the Pavillion des Amateurs have been left standing, 
and are now used for regular exhibitions, large concerts, and extraordinary entertain¬ 
ments. From the roof of the Rotunda, to which you are admitted for twenty kreuzers, 
about equal to ten cents, there is a fine view of the Prater, the Danube, and the new 
suburbs lying beyond. Notwithstanding all their love of pleasure and gayety, that is 
dissipation sometimes, the Viennese are not a shiftless people ; some of them, at least, 
work. It is the center of a very important railway system, which radiates in all direc¬ 
tions, connecting especially with Russia and Turkey, running through Hungary till it 


262 


Cities of the World, 


reaches the Levant and Italy. Some of the manufactures of the city are of world-wide 
fame, particularly fancy leathers, meerschaum pipes, jewelry, clocks, musical and optical 
instruments, silks and velvets. There is refinement and culture, too, that attract people 
from all nations ; you see it in their dress, their manners, and their way of living ; but 
it is not an intellectual city, although the university is five centuries old and numbers 
two or three thousand students and almost a hundred and fifty professors. The entire 
population of Vienna is one million two hundred thousand. 

The great central state of the new empire of Austria-Hungary, is the territory of the 
ancient and powerful kingdom of Hungary. It is united with Austria proper, by having 
the same ruler : the Emperor of Austria is king of Hungary. The kingdom is large and 
has great resources in fertile plains, vineyards, gardens, forests, and orchards, and is 
one of the most favored countries in Europe for its valuable minerals. The Hungarians, 
or Magyars as they call themselves, are more inclined to raise stock and crops than to 
manufacture, and for that reason they are not a race of city-building people. It has been 
said, with exaggeration, that there is only one noteworthy city in Hungary. This is the 
capital, Buda-Pesth, on the Danube, which makes up for the others in overflowing with 
life, in active trade, and brilliant society. Next to Vienna it is the most important city 
on the Danube, and is connected by railway with all the large towns in the country. 
The center of trade is along the magnificent quays that border the banks of the river, 
which, in the center of the city, is about fifteen hundred feet wide, and always full of 
almost every variety of river craft. 

Part of this shipping trade is in the products of the country round about—corn, flour 
and timber, or wine and brandy ; some of these come from the lovely vineyards 
surrounding the town, and the wool or cattle brought in from the farms of the peasantry. 
There are markets held every week when the country people bring in what they raise ; 
during each year there are four large fairs held. The factories of Buda Pesth make 
beautiful dress goods, meerschaum pipes, leather, gold and silver articles, besides heavier 
things like carriages, machinery and iron wares. The railway keeping a regular com¬ 
munication open between the capital and country places, has taken away the great need 
of the fairs of late years; but they are still important occasions, when almost half of 
Hungary is supplied with what is needed for daily living in exchange for what their work 
or land produces. These gatherings have many odd and fantastic sights ; hundreds of 
peasants in their various costumes are gathered in the city, making living pictures of the 
fourteenth or fifteenth century set in the modern surrounding of magnificent new build¬ 
ings and broad streets. The peasants, often wearing leather jerkins and undressed skins, are 
very merry and light-hearted, and enter heartily into the gay dances and lively songs, or 
the rough-and-tumble games that are to them an important part of the fairs. They partic¬ 
ularly delight in contests with their horses, which are taught all manner of tricks. One 
of their chief enjoyments is to see how long a rider can stay on a horse trying to 


Buda-Pesth . 263 

unseat him. Men and women enjoy this sport alike, and being quick and supple, take 
any amount of tumbles in great glee, without being hurt at all. 

The common people of Hungary live in a primitive way, and have most simple 
wants. “ At the fairs they prepare their food like gipsies, wrap themselves in their 
blankets or sheep-skin coats and sleep soundly on the ground or under their stalls or 
wagons, the earth being their couch and the sky their roof. They are ignorant and 
superstitious, but they are also sturdy, independent and exceedingly patriotic.” Beside 
the native Hungarians there are people from many other places of southern and eastern 
Europe, and almost every country adjoining. But this also is the character of the city, 
especially the part on the right bank of the river, which was the separate city of Buda, 
until 1872, although the two places had been connected by a large suspension bridge 
for about twenty-five years. The Germans call it Ofen or oven, from its great sulphur 
and hot spring, and by this name it is most generally known. 

This is really a city in itself, with characteristics distinct from the level, stately 
Pesth, on the opposite bank of the river. The streets and squares of Ofen, with their 
mingling of quaint and modern buildings, range like an amphitheater around the base 
and up the sides of a rocky hill; the top is level and crowned by a fortress and castle 
from which it is named the Schloss-berg, or Castle Hill. This is the center of observa¬ 
tion for both sections of the city, the majestic hills near by with their fortifications and 
precipitous fronts toward the water, and the fair green vineyards on the plains almost 
encircling the adjoining suburbs. The citadel is almost five hundred feet above the 
sea-level, and incloses within its walls a beautiful royal palace which Maria Theresa 
built in 1770. It was partially destroyed some thirty years ago, but was restored and 
now stands in regal splendor as the residence of the king (Emperor of Austria, but 
king in Hungary), when it is his pleasure to stay here. The garden surrounding the 
chateau extends down to the river, with a fine view of Pesth and the water even from the 
Palace Bazar, or from the cafe on the bank. 

Ofen differs in appearance and in people from most of the Danubian cities. There 
is a somber Mohammedan mosque over the grave of the saint Sheik Glib Baba, fre¬ 
quently visited by pilgrims from Turkey ; numerous buildings are partly or wholly in 
the style of the East ; many of the customs of the people and their manners of business 
dealing are from the Orient, and the Moorish baths are an important feature of the place. 
For more than a century during the Middle Ages, Buda was held by the Turks ; and 
some of the baths they established are still used a great deal. One of these, the Kaiser- 
bad, is a favorite resort ; adjoining is a Turkish fortification on the river. It has eleven 
springs that vary in temperature from 8o° to 150° Fahrenheit. There are large swim¬ 
ming basins for gentlemen and ladies, and adjoining are fine colonnades, and caf6s 
looking out upon the gardens. There is always music here, which adds to the other 
attractions—things to eat and drink,—and draws many people. 


264 


Cities of the World. 


The Hungarians are fond of music and company, and frequent restaurants and cafes 
a great deal. Sunday is chief reception day at all cafes, the laws and customs of all Ger¬ 
many being different from ours in regard to the Sabbath. The people gather by hund¬ 
reds, in their peculiar national costume ; they stroll about, or sit at the tables consum¬ 
ing hours in smoking, talking and drinking beer, which is said to be the German equiv¬ 
alent for water. They are overflowing with love for their country, so their conversation 
runs mostly upon the past and the future of Hungary ; few of them are satisfied with a 
government united to Austria. Mingled with the native Hungarians there are Jews, Turks, 
Greeks, and men and women of all nations. It is quite another class of people that you 
see in the Raitzenbad, a bath for the poor, also in Buda, between the Schlossberg gate 
and the larger hill of Blocksberg. The bath itself is a large and dismal vault, with a 
few openings for light; but the sight is the people, who gather about the huge basin of 
hot water in the center. They plunge about, screaming and jumping, jostling and 
pushing, wrestling and playing leap-frog, like frantically gay creatures that seem to belong 
to some other world ; the hot sulphurous water seems to affect their spirits like liquor, 
although many of them are old men and women. Bathing is not a German custom, but 
it is thoroughly seated here ; and in the beautiful parks on Margaret Island, just above 
the city, there is an elegant new bath, with fine hotels and villas, for patients who are 
staying in Buda-Pesth for the benefit of the waters. The finest part of Pesth is the site of 
the old twelfth century settlement, the Inner Town, that lies along the river. Unlike 
Buda, it is level, and so low that it is diked in from the river. The broad quay is like a 
fine boulevard, terraced and flanked by imposing buildings, with the magnificent academy 
in the center, opposite the suspension bridge. This is the seat of the leading scientific 
society in Hungary, and contains also a picture gallery famous for some great works by 
Murillo, Raphael, and other old masters. Throughout the city there is a fine display of 
large public and private buildings. The Inner Town is the center of fashion and trade, 
and around it are grouped four stadte or towns in a semi-circle, laid out in short ami 
regular cross streets between the long avenues that radiate from the Old Town. These 
thoroughfares are wide, straight, and well paved, and lined with handsome buildings. 
The aristocracy, university, law courts and government buildings, with the most mag¬ 
nificent stores, are in the Inner Stadt. Altogether four-fifths of the people of the city 
live on this side of the river ; the entire population is about three hundred and sixty 
thousand, more people than live in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. “ The 
brightest jewel in the imperial crown of Austria is Bohemia,” with its fertile soil, wealth 
of minerals, abundant resources, and industrious people. In the center of this rich and 
beautiful land is the famous city of Prague. This is the third city in the monarchy in 
size ; but for its beautiful situation, its quaint architecture and important place in history, 
it has no equal among all the cities of Germany. On both sides of the Moldau, 
spanned by many tower-guarded bridges, it stretches up the sides of its rocky basin in 


Prague. 


265 


a lovely picture of some thriving city of the Middle Ages, framed by the verdant sum¬ 
mits of the hills. It scarcely seems possible, as you gaze at it from the Carlsbriike, that 



PRAGUE. 

it can be an active, wide-awake place of the nineteenth century, with about a hundred 
and seventy-five thousand people, who almost lead the Empire in manufacturing and trade. 
Yet, it is all true ; and the well-equipped University, after centuries of neglect, is alive 





































266 


Cities of the World. 


with students and professors. It is the oldest University in Germany, and in the fifteenth 
century was the most celebrated in the world, with twenty thousand students. The city 
is surrounded by .walls and bastions, entered by eight antique gates, and commanded by 
the grand old fortified citadel above the river, which was once the residence of the early 
dukes of Bohemia. The gates and towers, the quaint houses with their fantastic decora¬ 
tions, lining the narrow streets, and even the foot-ways, wrought with blue and yellow 
limestone, with Arabesque patterns, are unlike any other sight in Europe. There are 
new buildings and push enough in the people ; but they are proud of keeping their 
Bohemian character ; they take care to preserve their language, too, and will not 
exchange it for the most “ polite high Dutch ” of the Empire. 

Placards and signs on shop fronts and walls are all in the vernacular. “ A few leisurely 
strolls through the streets would almost serve the purpose of grammar and dictionary, 
especially as several of the advertisers are so considerate as to give a German translation 
alongside.” But they are Europeanizing gradually, especially in dress. “ The dark- 
colored long coat, with belt and plume of dyed cock feathers in a dark felt hat, worn by 
the—for the most part unoccupied—police, is about the only characteristic costume you 
see now among this busy good tempered and well-conducted people,” except on some of 
the market days. There are a remarkable number of book stores in Prague, and the 
photographs in the shop windows seem without number. Like most other German cities, 
Prague has an old town, the most busy and full of people, and new stadte beyond. At 
every turn there are statues, tablets, and historical relics, reminding the visitor of the 
great men and important events that have been connected with the city that has been 
great for so many centuries, and is growing still. The principal seaboard trade of Austria 
is centered at Trieste, at the head of the Adriatic. Nearly one-third of all the sea 
trade of the monarchy is carried on here ; it is also the chief port of the Adriatic. It is 
a beautiful city, of a hundred and fifty thousand people (the size of Washington, D.C.), 
at the foot of the cliffs of the Karst, the heights of this desert tract of limestone bluffs 
in the background being covered with gardens, orchards, vineyards and many elegant 
villas. The Schlossberg, crowned with an old castle and fortifications, overlooks the old 
town, whose crooked, narrow streets, with a number of great public squares, either creep 
by its rocky sides or lie at its foot on the southern side of the semi-circular harbor. 
Separated by the handsome cross, the main street of the city, lies the New Town. This 
is made up of wide, regular streets, lined with handsome houses, and skirting the east and 
north shores of the port ; it is divided into two parts by a great canal running up into 
the center of the city. There are many noteworthy places in this celebrated seaport, the 
finest of all being the Tergesteum, which is a splendid modern building in the New Town. 
It is named from the ancient Romans, who held this port as early as fifty years before 
Christ, and called it Tergestum. Trieste is very proud of the title of “ the most loyal 
of towns,” which it has borne since 1816. 


THE LEVANT.* 



A LL the regions beyond Italy, bordering the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, 
are commonly known in Europe as the Levant. This usually includes Asia Minor, 
Turkey, Syria, Greece, Egypt and the adjacent country, but it does not extend east of 
the Euphrates River. In the time of the ancients and during the middle ages some of 
the grandest cities of the world flourished here, but nowadays the most important places 
in the Levant take second or third rank among our great cities. 

The greatest Levantine city is Constantinople. To come into Constantinople on a 

fine morning is a great moment in a 
man’s life. You enter the Bosphorus 
—that arm of the sea which divides 
Asia from Europe, and joins the Sea 
of Marmora to the Black Sea—then go 
up a narrow roadstead which lies at 
a right angle with the Bosphorus, and 
penetrates for several miles into the 
European land, curving like the horn 
of an ox. This is the Golden Horn, 
or, horn of abundance, because through 
it flowed, when it was part of Byzantium, 
the wealth of three continents. At the 
angle of the European shore, which on 
one side is bathed by the waters of the 
Sea of Marmora, and on the other by 
those of the Golden Horn, where once 
Byzantium stood, now rises upon seven 
hills, Stamboul, the Turkish city—at the 
other angle, marked by the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, stand Galata and Pera above 
it, the Frankish cities—opposite the mouth of the Golden Horn, upon the hills of the 
Asiatic side, is the city of Scutari. That then which is called Constantinople is composed 
of three great cities, divided by the sea, but placed the one opposite the other, and the 
third facing the other two. From the hill tops to the sea, quarter after quarter stretch 
along the water thickly sown with houses and dotted with white mosques, rows of ships. 


A HAREM WINDOW. 


*See “ Great Cities of the Ancient World. 





































268 


Cities of the World. 


little doors, palaces rising from the water, pavilions, gardens, kiosks, groves ; a glow of 
colors, and all the sublime glory of Constantinople is in full view. The Golden Horn is 
like a river, and on either shore are two chains of heights on which rise and lengthen two 
parallel chains of city, embracing eight miles of hills, valleys, bays and promontories ; 
a hundred amphitheaters of monuments and gardens, houses, mosques, bazars, 
seraglios, baths, kiosks of infinite variety of colors ; in the midst of thousands of 
minarets with shining pinnacles rising into the sky like columns of ivory ; groves of 
cypress trees descending in long lines from the heights to the sea, engarlanding suburbs 
and ports ; the green of trees and vines springing and gushing out everywhere, waving 
plume-like in the summits, encircling the roofs and hanging over into the water. Galata 
is faced by a forest 
of masts and sails and 
flags ; above Galata, 

Pera, the vast outlines 
of her European pal¬ 
aces drawn upon the 
sky; in front, abridge 
connecting the two 
shores and traversed 
by two opposing 
throngs of many col¬ 
ored people; opposite 
Stamboul stretched 
upon her broad 
hills, upon each of 
which rises a gigantic 
mosque with leaden 
dome and golden pin- fountain st. sophia. 

nacles; Saint Sophia, white and rose colored ; Sultan Ahmed, flanked by six minarets ; 
Soliman the Great, crowned with ten domes ; Sultana Valide, mirrored in the 
waters ; on the fourth hill the Mosque of Mahomet Second; on the fifth the 
Mosque of Selim ; on the sixth the Seraglio of Tekyr; and above them 
all the white Tower of Seraskiarat, which overlooks the shores of both continents 
from the Dardanelles to the Black Sea.” This is Constantinople from the ship ; but 
when you enter it you find it more the skeleton of a great city, than the vast metro¬ 
polis it appeared to you. “ It is in the process of transformation now, and is made up of 
ancient cities that are in decay, new cities just built, and others being built ; on every 
side are traces of gigantic works ; ” great plans not yet completed give the whole place 
an appearance of civilization cutting its way through tracts of decay, or of natural wilds. 



























Constantinople. 269 

“ You go to the head of a fine street, it is closed by a ravine or precipice ; you come out 
of the theater to find yourself in the midst of tombs ; you go up a street, there is no 
more city. The streets bend into infinite angles, wind about among small hills, are 
raised on terraces, skirt ravines ; pass under aqueducts, break into alleys, run down steps, 
through bushes, rocks, ruins and sand hills. Here and there the great city takes as it 
were, a breathing time in the country ; and then begins again, thicker, livelier, more highly 
colored ; now it is all red, now all white, again all gold colors, and further on it presents 
the aspect of a mountain of flowers. In the midst of Turkish houses rise European 
palaces ; behind the minaret stands the bell-tower ; above the terrace the dome ; beside 
the dome the battlemented wall ; the Chinese roofs of kiosks hang over the fa9ades of 
theaters ; the grated balconies of the harem confront plate glass windows ; Moorish lat¬ 
tices look upon raised terraces ; niches with the Madonna within, are set beneath Arabian 
arches ; sepulchers are in the courtyards, and towers among the laborers' cabins ; mosques 
and synagogues, Greek churches, Catholic churches, American churches, rise one above 
another, amid a confusion of vanes, cypresses, umbrella pines, fig and plane trees, that 
stretch their branches over the roofs. At every hundred paces all is changed. There are 
points of France, strips of Italy, fragments of England, relics of Russia ; there is a con¬ 
vent of Dervishes in one street, a Moorish barrack in another, and Turkish cafes, 
bazars, fountains, aqueducts, at every turn.” The great differences in the people add 
very much to the infinite variety of the city. The population is made up of people of 
every race and religion ; in one place densely crowded ; in another sparsely scattered ; 
the numbers have never yet been thoroughly counted, although the estimate is six 
hundred thousand—about the same as Chicago, Illinois, or Liverpool, England. The 
best of all places to see the people is on the floating bridge, which extends from the 
most advanced point of Galata to the opposite shore of the Golden Horn, facing the 
great mosque of the Sultana Valide, a distance of about one-quarter of a mile. Both 
shores are European territory ; but the bridge may be said to connect Asia to Europe, 
because in Stamboul there is nothing European but the ground, and even the Christian 
suburbs that crown it are of Asiatic character and color. Standing on this bridge one can 
see all Constantinople go by in an hour. The crowd passes in great waves, each one of which ( 
is of a hundred colors, and every group of persons represents a new type of people. Behind 
a throng of Turkish porters who pass running, and bending under enormous burdens, 
advances a sedan-chair, inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, and bearing an Armenian 
lady ; and at either side of it a Bedouin wrapped in a white mantle or a Turk in muslin 
turban and sky-blue caftan, beside whom canters a young Greek gentleman followed by his 
dragoman in embroidered vest, and a dervise with his tall conical hat and tunic of camel’s 
hair, who makes way for the carriage of an European ambassador, preceded by his 
batistrada , or running footman, in gorgeous livery. All this is only seen in a glimpse, 
and the next moment it is a crowd of Persians, in pyramidal bonnets of Astrakan fur, 


Cities of the World. 


270 

who are followed by a Hebrew in a long yellow coat, open at the sides ; a frowzy-headed 
gipsy woman with her child in a bag at her back ; a Catholic priest with breviary staff ; 
while in the midst of a confused throng of Greeks, Turks, and Armenians comes a big 
eunuch on horseback, crying out Larya / make way ! and preceding a Turkish carriage, 
painted with flowers and birds, and filled with the ladies of a harem dressed in green and 
violet, and wrapped in large white veils ; behind a Sister of Charity from the hospital of 
Pera, an African slave carrying a monkey, and a professional story-teller in a necroman¬ 
cer's habit, and what is quite natural, but appears strange to the newcomer, all these 
diverse people pass each other without a look, like a crowd in London ; and not one 
single countenance wears a smile. An Albanian in his white petticoat and with pistols 
in his sash, beside the Tartar dressed in sheepskins, the Turk astride of his caparisoned 
donkey, threads pompously two long strings of camels ; behind the adjutant of an imperial 
prince, mounted upon his Arab steed, clatters a cart filled with all the odd domestic rub¬ 
bish of a Turkish household ; the Mohammedan woman afoot, the veiled slave woman, 
the Greek with her red cap, and her hair on her shoulders, the Maltese hooded in her 
black faldetta , the Hebrew woman dressed in the antique costume of India, the negress 
wrapped in a many colored shawl from Cairo, the Armenian from Trebizond, all veiled 
in black like a funeral apparition all these and countless others jostle each other as 
they pass along. “ Now it is a water carrier with a colored jar on his back ; now a Russian 
lady on horseback : now a squad of imperial soldiers in zouave dress ; now a crew of 
Armenian porters, two and two, carrying on their shoulders immense bars, from 
which are suspended great bales of merchandise. 

“Camels, horses, sedan-chairs, oxen, carts, casks on wheels, bleeding donkeys, mangy 
dogs ; so it goes on in greater multitudes of men and beasts, than can even be named, 
a steady tread of many, many feet and a murmurming sound of voices above which you 
hear in every tongue the shrill cries of newspaper sellers ; the shout of the porters, the 
giggling laugh of the Turkish women, the falsetto trill of blind men chanting verses of 
the Koran, the noise of the bridge as it moves upon the water, the whistles and bells of 
a hundred steamers,” the striking of hoofs, sometimes clear and distinct and sometimes 
mingled in one mighty roar. “All this throng of people embark in the small steamboats 
that leave every moment for Scutari, for the villages on the Bosphorus, and the suburbs 
of the Golden Horn ; they spread through Stamboul, in the bazars, in the mosques,” 
far and near they go and return, blending together in a constant stream of life between 
“ ten cities and a hundred suburbs.” 

“ In Stamboul every thing is strictly Oriental. The houses on either side the thousand 
alleys that wind about the hills are all of wood, painted in different colors, their upper 
stories projecting over the lower ; and the windows protected in front by a sort of grated 
gallery and closed by small wooden lattices that almost touch from opposite sides in some of 
the narrow streets. Mysterious by-ways often open on a sudden turn into one of the great 


Constantinople. 


271 



thoroughfares, flanked by magnificent monuments, and lined with mosques, kiosks, 
arched galleries, fountains in marble and lapis-lazuli, mausoleums of departed sultans, 
resplendent with arabesques and gold inscriptions, walls covered with mosaics.” The 
Jews’ Quarter is a filthy place lying at the foot of the sixth hill in Stamboul ; it runs 
along the shore of the Golden Horn, where it was once ornamented by gorgeous palaces ; 
it is now full of ruins and sadness. 

One of the chief sights within the city is the Great Bazar in Stamboul. It is 
reached by a street that begins at the fish market, so narrow that the upper stories of 


THE BOSPHORUS. 

the houses almost touch each other, and lined with a double row of low, dark tobacco 
shops, and ending in a low, dark archway, festooned with vines. Beyond this is a vast 
stone building, through which runs a long, straight, covered street, flanked by dark 
shops, and crowded with people, cases, sacks, and heaps of merchandise. This is the 
Egyptian bazar, full of wares from India, Syria, Arabia and Egypt. It is a street of 
noisy coppersmiths, beyond this, where there are bad smelling Turkish taverns, and a 
thousand little black holes of shops. Then comes the Great Bazar itself, which outside 
does not attract you nor show any signs of its contents. It is an immense stone build- 











272 


Cities of the World. 



ing of Byzantine architecture, and irregular form, surrounded by high gray walls, and sur¬ 
mounted by hundreds of little cupolas, covered with lead, and perforated with holes to give 
light to the interior. The principal entrance is an arched doorway ; beyond which you 
are in a moment bewildered by the sight of a labyrinth of arcaded streets flanked by 
sculptured columns and pilasters that stretch out before you. It is a real city, with 
its mosques, fountains, cross-ways and squares, dimly lighted and filled with a dense throng . 
of people. Every street is a bazar, almost all leading out of one main street, with an 

arched roof of black and white 
stone, and decorated with arab¬ 
esques like the nave of a mosque. 
In this dimly lighted thorough¬ 
fare, carriages, horsemen and 
camels are constantly passing, 
making a deafening noise. At 
every turn, by the side doors, 
are seen perspectives of arches 
and pilasters, long corridors, 
narrow alleys, a long confused 
aspect of bazars, and shops, 
with merchandise piled up or 
hanging from wall and ceiling, 
busy merchants, loaded porters, 
groups of veiled women, coming 
or going, the merchants calling 
out to the passers-by and en¬ 
deavoring in every language to 
induce them to buy. But the 
confusion is only apparent. 
This immense bazar is or¬ 
dered like a barrack. Every 
kind of goods has its own par¬ 
ticular quarter, its streets, its 
Mussulman woman. corridor, and its square. There 

are a hundred little bazars contained in one .great one, and opening one into the 
other like rooms of a vast apartment, and each bazar is at the same time a 
museum, a market and a theater, where you may look on without buying any 
thing, cake coffee, enjoy the coolness and lose yourself in the fantastic scene around 
you. The costumes of Constantinople are undergoing a change, and before long a 
g?;eat deal of the charming variety that has for so long a time been a great feature of the 
Turkish capital will be a thing of the past. “ The inflexible old Turk still wears the tur- 





Constantinople . 


2 73 

ban, the caftan, and the traditional slippers of yellow morocco ; the Turk who is on the 
side of reform in dress and old time customs and belief, wears a long black frock coar, 
buttoned to the chin, trowsers with straps, and nothing Turkish but the fez, and some of 
the younger men even wear cut-away coats, light pantaloons, and elegant cravats, watch 
chains and seals, and a flower in the button-holes. Many, between these extremes, are 
in part Oriental and part European dress. The women’s clothes, too, are gradually 
undergoing a change, but they still keep to the custom of the veil and mantle, but the 
veil has become transparent, and the mantle often covers a dress of Paris pattern.” 

What can one not do in Constantinople ? There are two continents and two seas 
within sight. “ Horses stand saddled in every square, sailboats in every cove, steamboats 
at every flight of steps, the darting caique, the flying talika, and an army of guides 
speaking all the lan¬ 
guages of Europe.” 

One of the best ways 
to know what Con¬ 
stantinople is is to 
make the journey 
skirting Galata along 
the northern shore of 
the Golden Horn. 

Galata is built upon a 
hill that forms a pro¬ 
montory between the 
Golden Horn and the 
Bosphorus, and upon 
the site of the great 
cemetery of ancient 
Byzantium. The tower in bosphorus. 

streets are almost all narrow and tortuous, bordered by taverns, pastry-cook shops, 
butchers’ and barbers’ shops, Greek and Armenian cafes, merchants’ offices, workshops 
and the ever present barracks ; the whole dark, damp, muddy and sticky as in the lowest 
London quarter. A dense and busy crowd throng the streets, constantly opening before 
carriages, porters, donkeys and omnibuses. Almost all the trade of Constantinople 
passes through Galata. Here are the Exchange, the Custom House, the office of the 
Austrian Lloyds, those of the French Messageries, churches, convents, hospitals and 
warehouses. An underground railway unites Galata to Pera, and there is nothing Ori¬ 
ental here except turbans and fezzes. European languages are spoken on all sides. 
There are two long modern streets : one mounts the hill toward Pera, and the other runs 
parallel to the sea-shore from one end of Galata to the other, and leads to the Sultan’s 















Cities of the World. 


274 

palace. The city has the form of an opened fan, and the tower of Galata represents its 
handle. After threading your way through a series of dirty winding alleys you reach the 
Tower. This is a land-mark, which rises upon the line of the wall that once separated 
Galata from Pera, and now marks the limit of the Genoese quarter. The tower is 
round, very high, of dark color, ending in a conical point formed by its copper roof, 
under which runs a range of large windows, where night and day a guard 
watches for the first sign of any fire that may break out in the city. Near the tower you 
enter the principal street of Pera, which is the center of pleasure and elegance, especially 
for the European colony in Constantinople. The street is bordered by English and 
American hotels, handsome cafes, glittering shops, theaters, consulates, clubs and palaces 
of ambassadors. Here swarms a crowd quite different from Galata. In some of the 
adjacent suburbs the people are almost all Greeks, while near by is the Mussulman 
suburb of Kassim-Pasha, the heart of Turkey ; it is thickly set with mosques and con¬ 
vents of dervishes, full of flower and vegetable gardens, and occupies a hill and a valley, 
and extends to the waters of the Golden Horn. From the heights of Kassim-Pasha the 
spectacle is an enchanting one. Below upon the shore is the arsenal of Ters-Kane ; a 
labyrinth of docks, factories, squares, store-houses and barracks, that extends for a mile 
along that part of the Golden Horn which is used as a port for vessels of war ; the light 
and elegant building of the Ministry of Marine, that seems floating on the water, is seen 
upon the dark green background of the cemetery of Galata ; the harbor is full of small 
steamboats and caiques loaded with people, that dart about among the iron-clads lying 
at anchor, and old frigates dating from the Crimean war ; and on the opposite shore 
Stamboul, the aqueduct of Vanentinian, that throws its lofty arches against the blue sky, 
the great mosques of Soliman and Mahomet the Second, and myriads of houses and min¬ 
arets. Other quarters, Turkish and Israelitish, each with its own peculiarities, extend 
beyond, from height to shore, all interesting and every thing new. The Halidgi-Oghli is 
made up of a mixture of people ; it is “ a little city, where at every turn one meets a new 
race and a new religion. You go up, you go down, you climb, you wind about among 
tombs, mosques, churches, and synagogues ; you skirt gardens and cross squares ; you 
meet handsome Armenian matrons, and veiled Turkish women ; and you hear Greek, 
Armenian, and Spanish spoken.” What a wonderland you are in ! 

Among the things peculiar to this city are the birds. They are infi¬ 
nite in number and of every kind. All places resound with the song, the whis¬ 
tling and twittering of birds. The Turks love and care for them. “Spar¬ 
rows enter the houses boldly and eat off women’s and children’s hands; swal¬ 
lows nest over the cafe doors, and under the arches of the bazars; pigeons are 
maintained by legacies from sultans and private individuals ; seagulls dart and play 
over the water ; thousands of turtledoves coo among the cypresses in the cemeteries ; 
crows croak about the Castle of the Seven Towers ; halcyons come and go in long files 



CONSTANTINOPLE 

















































































































































































































































































































































276 


Cities of the World. 


between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmora ; and storks sit upon the cupolas of the 
mausoleums. For the Turk each one of these birds has a gentle meaning or a kind 
virtue, so he protects and feeds them in gratitude and piety.” His feeling for them is 
sincere like that for the dogs, which make up “ a second population, forming a great free 
vagabond republic, living in the streets, where they dig little dens, and live undisturbed 
during all their lives. They are masters of the public highways ; the people, the horses, 
the camels, and the donkeys, all make way for them. They are remarkably lazy. They 
lie down in the middle of the road, five, six, ten in a line, or in a ring, sleeping the whole 
day, and among throngs of people, the most deafening noises, unmoved by either 
cold or heat, rain or shine, and scarcely by the imminent danger of being run over. 

Although at some hours of the day Constantinople seems to be industrious, in reality it 
is perhaps the laziest city in Europe. Turks and Franks—or Europeans—are alike in 
this. Every body gets up as late as possible. The sun is high before it is possible even 
to get a cup of coffee. Then there are the holidays : the Turkish Friday, the Jewish 
Sabbath, the Christian Sunday, the innumerable saints’ days of the Greek and Armenian 
calendar, all scrupulously observed. There are offices that are only opened twenty-four 
hours in eight days. Every day one or the other of the five peoples of the great city 
goes lounging about the streets, in holiday dress, with no other thought than to kill time.” 
Everywhere you see a great amount of liberty, which results in the different nationalities 
keeping their own manners and customs, or adopting any others that they choose, within 
the bounds of law and order. 

The greatest things to see in Constantinople are the mosque of Saint Sophia, the 
Old Seraglio, the palaces of the Sultan, and the Castle of Seven Towers. In the square 
of St. Sophia is the famous pagoda-like fountain of Sultan Ahmed Third, a little edifice 
all of white marble covered with richest ornamentation. There is not a space as big as a 
hand that is not carved and gilded and embroidered. From this colossal jewel is seen 
the mosque of St. Sophia, filling up one side of the square, with its high white minarets 
that rise one at each of the four corners upon pedestals as big as houses. The dome, 
which looks so grand from a distance, seems small near by ; it is a -flattened dome, 
flanked by two half domes covered with lead, and perforated with a wreath of windows, 
supported upon four walls painted in stripes of pink and white ; on the eastern side 
there is a door ornamented by six columns of porphyry and marble ; at the southern side 
another door by which you enter a court, surrounded by low, irregular buildings, in the 
midst of which bubbles a fountain, covered by an arched roof with eight columns. From 
the outside Saint Sophia’s would never pass for the “ greatest temple in the world after 
St. Peter’s ; ” but within is the marble-lined vestibule, glittering with ancient mosaics, 
the grand nave, with its domes and columns, its galleries and porticos, its tribunes and 
gigantic arches ; its wonderful great dome, whose stateliness, color and variety bewilder 
you ; and as you go from one part to another the magnificence of art grows upon you 


Damascus. 


2 77 


with every step. “ St. Sophia’s stands opposite the principal entrance of the Old Seraglio, 
the great historic monument of the Ottoman dynasty. It was at once a royal palace, a 
fortress, and a sanctuary ; a city within a city, a monstrous palace placed upon the most 
eastern of the Stamboul hills, which descends gently toward the Sea of Marmora, the 
mouth of the Bosphorus, and the Golden Horn. The whole hill is encircled at its base by a 
battlemented wall with towers. Along the sea this wall is also the city wall. The Seraglio 
stands on the hill-top, with a circlet of walls immediately surrounding, But it is 
no longer in its Ottoman grandeur. The railway passes through the outer walls ; 
hospitals, barracks, and military schools stand in the devastated gardens; and many of 
the old buildings that remain have been changed in form and use. The famous residence 
of the Sultans is the D'olma Bagtche , and rises from the shore of the Bosphorus ; it is only 
possible to get a view of the whole of it from a boat. The facade, which is half a mile 
long, is turned toward Asia, and can be seen for a great distance, shining white 
between the blue of the sea and the dark green of the hill; it presents, with its 
many styles of architecture, the majestic appearance of the royal palaces of Eu¬ 
rope, combined with the graces of the Moorish buildings of Seville and Granada, 
altogether a vast Imperial City, as they say in China, with its palaces, its temples, 
its theaters, endless in variety, magnificence, and fantastic beauty. The old 
Castle of the Seven Towers stands where the land wall of the great triangle of the 
Mussulman city joins the sea wall. It is now nothing but a skeleton of a castle, a state 
prison, guarded by a few soldiers! The Turks call it Jedi-Kul , and it is for them what 
the Bastile was to the French, and the Tower of London to the English ; a monument 
recalling the worst epochs of the tyranny of the Sultans. 

The largest city in Syria, or in Asiatic Turkey, is Damascus. It is probably the 
most ancient of cities, as it is the most Oriental, and at a distance one of the most 
beautiful places in the world. From the lofty hill on the west the view is one of the 
sights, of the earth. The Damascenes say it is the earthly reflection of Paradise. In the 
midst of charming gardens, brightened by flowers of every hue, rich cornfields and 
blooming orchards, with the river Barrada and its branches winding through until they 
lose themselves far to the east in the lake Bahr-el-Merj, into which the Phege, a smaller 
stream, also flows, —in the midst of all this indescribably beautiful picture, the bright 
buildings of the city rise, gleaming snow-white in a long and rather narrow stretch. On 
the outskirts rise multitudes of tall poplar trees in dark and stately forms, and rich 
groves and orchards of walnut, fig, pomegranate, citron, and apricot. The city is 
famous for this magnificent picture, and equally famous, alas, for disappointing every one 
on nearer view, with its old, tumbledown walls, shabby houses and narrow streets. The 
mean looking houses so cramp the dirty streets, that a loaded donkey blocks the way, and 
foot-passengers hasten to get into the doorway of the nearest house until the blockade has 
passed by. The outsides of the houses have nothing but a door-way to break the stretch 


278 


Cities of the World. 


of dead wall with their projecting upper stories, shutting out all but a thin strip of sky. 
But after you have recovered from your first disappointment in Damascus, it will 
grow interesting to you, especially if you study any thing of its history. The 
houses which look so unattractive outside are often very beautiful within, with fine 
marble-paved courts, ornamented with trees, shrubs, and fountains, rooms with roofs 
and walls decorated with arabesques, and most luxuriously furnished. 

In the south-eastern part of town is the Jewish Quarter, and above it is the Christian 
Quarter, where the lanes are narrow and the houses are in a ruinous condition, while 
between them runs the only broad, respectable street in the old city, Derb-el-Mustakim , 
familiar to us in the Scripture as “ the Street that is called Straight.” Muslims occupy 
the other parts of the town. These quarters are subdivided into smaller sections, each 
closed off from the other at night by wooden gates, kept by blind public paupers. “ The 
present form of Damascus is something like a spoon, with the new quarter of Meidan for a 
handle.” This is about a mile long and occupies only one street, and is quite different 
from any other part of the town. The whole suburb is comparatively new, and none of 
the many dilapidated mosques on each side of the broad, badly-paved street, are over a 
couple of centuries old. This is very modern for a city mentioned in the book of Gene¬ 
sis. The bazar, occupied mostly by smiths and corn-dealers, is particularly interesting 
when a caravan arrives. “ A long string of camels stalks through the street, accom¬ 
panied by ragged Bedouins with matted hair and wild appearance. In the midst of the 
procession the Hauranian is bringing his corn to market, and the Kurd shepherd, clad in 
his square cloak of felt, is driving his flock to the slaughter-house. The Bedouins, poor 
as they are, often ride beautiful horses, guiding them with a halter only ; they are usually 
armed with a long lance, and rarely with a gun. In the midst of the noisy city these 
half-savages are quite out of their element. Some of them called Shebis, live 
chiefly by gazelle hunting, and wear gazelle skins, but these do not often come to town. 
Sometimes a Druse of high rank comes in riding at the head of an armed troop.. His 
appearance is imposing, his turban is snowy white, he is equipped with a lance, handsome 
pistols, a sword, and perhaps a gun also, and his horse is often richly caparisoned. There 
are two days in the year when almost every type of the countrymen pass through here. 
These are on the day when the great caravan starts for Mecca, and on the day of its 
return. The Pilgrimage passes in and out of the gate at the end of the Meidan, which 
from its connection with this religious mission, is called God’s Gate. In 1873 the Pil¬ 
grimage caravan returned on April 16th, and each successive year it arrives about eleven 
days later than the year before. The grotesque camel-litters of this procession are rudely 
made of wood covered with colored cloth, and open in front; they carry several people, 
reclining on Oriental-looking couches. The litter is sometimes borne by two camels, one 
before, and the other behind, which are trained to keep step with each other. The 
camels are adorned with a headgear of leather straps, to which shells, coins, and small 


Damascus. 


2 79 

bells are attached. A handsome, richly caparisoned camel bears a large litter, which is 
hung with green cloth embroidered with gold, and contains an old Koran and the green 
flag of Mohammed the prophet. The party is accompanied by many half-naked der¬ 
vishes, and by an escort of soldiers, Druses, and Bedouins. The pilgrims, who have an 
eye to business as well as religion, bring back goods from Mecca.” 

The great bazar of Damascus is in the inner part of the city, and is divided into 
sections, on the same plan as that of Constantinople. In among them are cafes, 
one that is particularly attractive is situated on a terrace, near some of the khans 
or wholesale houses ; the Great Khan is a splendid building of black and white 
marble, and all about it is a vast crowd of quaint, picturesque Oriental life. 
** The bazar is an exceedingly noisy place, with the lusty singing of beggars and 
vendors rising above the constant din of ordinary voices, mingled with the noise of 
workmen, and the sonorous repetition of the Mohammedan creed by the muezzins, which 
resounds from one minaret to another throughout the whole city, for mosques are at 
every turn. The handicraftsmen of Damascus appear to be very industrious as a class. 
The barber, too, in his stall, hung round with mirrors, incessantly and skillfully plies his 
trade of shaving heads and bleeding. The public writers, who sit at the corners of 
the streets, are often surrounded by peasants and Bedouins, and sometimes by women. 
The engraver of seals is another important personage here, as a man adds his seal and 
not his signature to important business papers. The Persians are particularly noted for 
their skill in seal engraving and caligraphy. All these craftsmen begin their daily tasks 
at a very early hour, but the merchants do not open their shops till eight in the morning, 
and close them at about half an hour before sunset. Persons who walk about the streets 
after dark are liable to be arrested if they do not carry a fAnils , that is, one of the tin or 
paper lanterns common in the city. At the gate of each quarter one must shout, 1 Open, 
O watchman ! ’ for the poor old gate-keeper to let him through.” In the midst of one 
of the bazar streets the Citadel of Damascus towers above the shops, and surrounded by 
its reed grown moat. This was built in 580, with thick walls and twelve great projecting 
towers and overhanging stories. Toward the east there is a small postern ; but the main 
entrance is the Western Gate. There are four antique columns in this side, which once 
partly supported a large reception room, whose roof has now fallen. The chambers of 
the castle that are still preserved contain collections of ancient weapons, and the sacred 
tent which is carried by the caravan of pilgrims to Mecca. Not far away through the 
crooked, narrow streets is the Great Mosque, once very beautiful, but now much marred 
and partly in ruins. 

The famous swords of wonderfully-tempered steel for which ancient Damascus was so 
noted are not made here now. No manufactures are very extensive ; the silks, cottons, 
jewelry, saddlery, arms and other things, of which you see such quantities in the 
bazars, are rarely enough to supply any foreign trade. There are said to be about a 


280 Cities of the World. 

hundred and fifty thousand people in the city and the adjoining suburbs, but the figures 
can not be given exactly. 

Smyrna, while one of the most important cities of Asia Minor now, was far greater 
in ancient days. It has about the same number of people as Damascus, but has more 
life than the “ city of earthly paradise.” The harbor at the head of the Gulf of Smyrna 
is so fine that ships of large burden anchor close to the quays. The trade, by railway 
also, is very extensive and important. Some of the buildings are handsomely built of 
stone ; but the city is mainly made up of ill-paved, narrow, crooked, dirty street's, wdth 
low wooden houses, generally no more than one story high. After the usual Turkish 
custom, the Turks, Greeks, Jews, Armenians, and Franks each have distinct quar¬ 
ters. The trade is in importing goods and products from Europe that the country does 
not supply for itself, while in exchange there is a thriving export business in wools, cot¬ 
ton, silk, carpets, olive-oil, drugs, gums, figs, raisins, and many other articles which are 
considered great luxuries in England and America. 

Two thousand years ago, when Egypt ruled the world, her numerous cities were the 
most magnificent ever built. Now, of them all, there are only two of importance left ; 
and these are greatly changed. Cairo, near the point of the Delta, is the capital of the 
present State, and a city where modern improvements are strangely combined with the 
medieval and oriental character. Its low wall, inclosing three square miles of oblong 
territory, and about three hundred and fifty thousand people, rises out of a sandy plain 
between the right bank of the Nile and the rocky ridge of Mokattam. From these 
heights, which lie on the south-east side of the town, the citadel rises two hundred and 
fifty feet. The citadel is in itself a small and interesting town, gathered about the hand¬ 
some palace and mosque of Mohammed Ali. The courts of the mosque, paved with 
white marble and inclosed by columns, the round arches with fancy capitals, and the 
vaulted domes, are all overlooked by a clock tower on the west, and surmounted by a 
large principal dome. This is supported by four great piers, and embraced by four half 
domes, with four smaller domes above the angles. Small stained glass windows with 
round arches are just below. The interior is very rich and striking with painted decora¬ 
tions, a great luster in the center and numerous small lamps. The casing of Mohammed 
Ali’s tomb and the surroundings are of alabaster, which is also much used in the columns 
and domes of other parts of the beautiful building. From the ramparts of the citadel 
the entire city with the surrounding country is plainly in view below. “ The vastness of 
the city, as it lies stretched below, surprises every one. It looks a perfect wilderness of 
flat roofs, cupolas, minarets, and palm tops, with an open space here and there present¬ 
ing the complete front of a mosque, and gay groups of dusky-skinned people, and 
moving camels. The wonderful aqueduct runs off for miles across the plain. 
The fawn-colored domes of the famous tombs of the caliphs rise against the somewhat 
darker sand of the desert. The gleaming river winds away from the dim south into the 





STREET IN CAIRO 











































































































































2 82 


Cities of the World. 


blue distance of the north ; the green strips of cultivation on its banks glow amid the 
yellow sands. Eight miles away to the west the Pyramids of Gizeh seem to rise in 
their full height, while the eye measures the full distance between. The platform of the 
Great Pyramid is seen to be a considerable hill of itself ; and the fields and causeways 
which are between it and the river lie as in a map, and indicate the true distance and 
elevation of these mighty monuments. The Libyan hills, dreary as possible, close in the 
view behind them, as the Mokattam range does above and behind the citadel.” 

Between the old fortified city and the river there lies a new district of broad streets and 
regular rows of houses called the quarter Ismaileeyah , not generally included as a part of 
Cairo proper. The city itself is walled off into quarters, which used to be separated by gates, 
and are still known by distinct names. “ The majority of these quarters are built up in 
dwelling houses and are known by a name taken from some public building, from some 
person who once owned the property, or from some class of people who live there. 
Through the crowded districts of tortuous lanes and narrow, unpaved streets which 
once made up the entire city, fine new thoroughfares have been laid lately, and 
some of the dreary, neglected and choked-up lots have been transformed into open 
squares surrounded by handsome houses and some pretentious shops. From the foot of 
of the Citadel the Boulevard Mohammed Ali, the finest of the new streets, crosses the 
city in an almost northerly direction, ending in the Esbekeeyeh, the largest and best 
known public place in Cairo. At the head of this Boulevard with some fine open squares 
leading to it on all sides is the finest mosque in the city. There are four hundred of 
these Oriental temples in Cairo, but no other is as magnificent as this of Sultan Hassan, 
almost under the shadow of the Citadel. It was finished in the year 1360 A. D., and as 
one of the most superb monuments to Mohammedan religion has made the reign of 
Hassan memorable forever. This, like the mosque on the Citadel, was built of blocks of 
stone brought from the Pyramids ; but has quite a different appearance, for that is 

built after the Constantinople fashion, .and this in the Egyptian style. It has a 

lofty and beautifully ornamented porch, towering walls bordered with rich cor¬ 
nices and surmounted by graceful minarets, and broken by arches leading to the 

spacious court. There are many other fine mosques, among the shops and palaces, 
the houses and bazars that line the Boulevard Mohammed Ali, while into it open 
a great number of narrow, small streets. Those from the eastern side come from 
the medieval part, while among the lane-like thoroughfares on the west there are 
some of the new, broad streets of the modern districts. By one of them the Palace of 
Abdeen is soon reached, where the Khedive usually lives during the winter ; and further 
west, near the river bank, are the palace and gardens of Shoobra. This was the favorite 
residence of Mohammed Ali, and is now the terminus of one of the most fashionable 
afternoon drives out of Cairo. There are other smaller palaces along the river both 
above and below Shoobra, extending to Boolak on the north, and to old Cairo on the 


Cairo . 


283 

south. Around the Esbekeeyeh, the square in which the Boulevard of Mohammed Ali 
ends, are most of the principal hotels, the Opera House, the French Theater, the palace 
occupied by the Mixed Tribunals or Egyptian Parliament, the old palace of Mohammed 
Ali, several other palaces, consulates and many substantial looking buildings of stores 
and houses, some of which are built in arcades occupied by handsome shops on the 
ground floor, and spacious stories above let for offices and private residences. The 
Esbekeeyeh is very large, the thoroughfares surrounding it are long public squares and 
embellished with statuary and fountains. The roadways are broad, well kept, and well 
lighted with gas ; the foot pavements are wide and planted with trees. The 
center of the place is like a European public garden, with cafes, places of amusement, 
grottoes, and ornamental water. It is a great resort where a band plays toward 
evening, and little children run and have a good time in the early morning. Above, 
on the east, and partly below the Esbekeeyeh, lie the old quarters of the city, the true 
Cairo surrounding a bit of transplanted Europe. 

The quarters are no longer shut off from each other by gates, but they are still 
quite distinct, each having its sheykh , who keeps order among the people, and who must 
be consulted for permission to live in his quarter. In all these sections the streets are 
very narrow. This is due to the Cariean mode of building houses, each story projecting 
beyond that below it. Two persons may almost shake hands across the street from the 
upper windows ; in fact, in the Jews’ Quarter many of the houses of the two opposite 
sides actually touch each other at the upper stories. Narrow streets are very common to 
places in hot climates; for it makes both the houses and the streets cooler. Another 
reason, often the cause of setting buildings close together, was that the city was then more 
safe from the attack of enemies. “ The streets of Cairo stand alone in their remarkable 
picturesqueness and Oriental character. Its narrow thoroughfares, with their quaint 
projecting balconies, and here and there the large’walis of a mosque whose minaret pierces 
the blue far up in the sky the thronging, turbaned crowd with every variety of strange 
costume and adornment; the camels with their silent tread, and heads lifted up as if 
sniffing the desert air from afar ; the bazars and inner courts with their glowing colors 
flung from Persian rugs, and carpets, lighted up by strong sunbeams, piercing the shelter¬ 
ing awnings.” 

The most of the poor people’s houses are miserable mud hovels with filthy courts, 
dilapidated windows and tattered awnings, but the dwellings of the rich are both beauti¬ 
ful and comfortable. Usually they are elaborately built in arabesque style, the basement 
story of the soft stone from the neighboring hills, and the upper story of painted brick. 
The stained glass windows are shaded by cornices that extend out from the wall in grace¬ 
ful ornaments. A winding passage leads through the ornamental doorway into the court, 
in the center of which is a fountain shaded with palm trees. The principal apartment is 
generally paved with marble ; in the center a decorated lantern is suspended over a fount- 


284 


Cities of the World. 


ain, while round the sides are richly inlaid cabinets and windows of stained glass ; and 
in a recess is the divan , a low, narrow cushioned seat running around the walls. 

Throughout Cairo in all quarters there is a liberal supply of public fountains, which 
provide water to all free of cost. Some of these in the oldest parts are curious and beau¬ 
tiful pieces of Oriental art, while others are modern affairs after the style in Constantino¬ 
ple. Above the fountain there is usually a room where the free day school is held. Another 
picturesque sight in this Oriental city is at the baths. The places themselves are not as 
fine nor as handsome as in many Eastern cities ; but they are always intr usting ; they 
are all vapor-baths, and one may go alone or in a party to submit to the heat, the sham¬ 
pooing, the rubbing with horse-hair gloves and all the res*t, which when done certainly is 
a success in the way of cleanliness, though at the cost of considerable discomfort. The 
baths are usually given up to the men in the morning, while only women go in the after¬ 
noon ; but some places have special days in the week devoted to women, while others are 
carried on exclusively for men, or for women at all times. The interior of the baths are 
gay and picturesque with a bright-colored entrance and passages prettily inlaid with 
colored stones. In every thing Cairo is an Oriental city, and is more interesting in this 
respect than any other Eastern town. It is full of romance, of picturesque Oriental 
wonders, of strange sights, strange noises and strange smells. Every little narrow lane, 
every turn—and the turns are incessant—every mosque, and every shop creates fresh 
surprise. Then there are the people,—not the white skinned European and American 
visitors, but the Cairean people: Muslims in gorgeous turbans, and long sashes, and a 
long chibouque bound with colored silk and gold threads,” followed by their slaves 
holding their gorgeous garments from the dirt of the streets; there are Copts, Abyssin- 
ians, Nubians and other native Africans ; there are Turks in baggy trowsers and 
fez ; and Jews, recognizable in any costume. Occasionally there is a lady, in a vast 
silken bag, bulging like a balloon over h£r donkey ; or in the twilight a long string of 
donkeys ambling by, each bearing one of the inflated balloons. This is a harem—the 
women of some household—“ taking the evening air, with the eunuch, like a captain riding 
before.” The next sight might be Sakkas, men with hog-skins slung over their backs, 
full of water, which they sell from house to house ; or peddlers with turbaned 
heads, walking about in their long robes, crying their wares. Now you see a gay 
bazar, and, walking in, inspect its stock of silks and embroidered stuffs, rich 
Persian carpets, or fine cloth. One of the finest bazars is the Khaliel, which 
is almost six hundred years old. Here there is nearly every thing for sale. One 
part is given up to carpet dealers, another to tradesmen in copper, in a part 
called “ within the chains ” are silks and other goods from Constantinople. 
Most of the shops in this and other bazars are kept by Turks, and are built open in 
front, very much resembling a cupboard. Mondays and Thursdays always being market 
days, there are special sales in the bazars, carried on by appraisers or delldls y who “ wade 


Alexandria . 


285 

through the crowd, carrying drawn swords, fly-flaps, silk dresses, chain armor, amber 
mouth pieces, guns,” and a multitude of other kinds of articles, which they auction off, 
calling the price they are bid for them as they move along. Near the KhaUel is the Mar¬ 
ket of the Coppersmiths, and further on is the Bazar of the Gold-and-Silversmiths ; in 
another, crape, silks, cloths and other goods mostly made in Europe are sold ; in another 
attar of roses and other perfumes along with drugs and spices ; and another has ostrich 
eggs, Nubian spears and arrows and gum arabic ; and so on, even more numerous than 
the mosques, there are bazars large and small, whose showy booth s offer for sale an 
endless variety of articles of every conceivable sort of use and ornament. The chief 
native manufactures of Cairo are gold and silver jewelry, silk and cotton stuffs, embroidery 
and native saddles, although many European industries have lately been introduced ; but 
a very large part of the people are occupied as porters, and venders of eatables ; many 
also are glaziers, boatmen on the Nile, donkey and camel drivers, water-carriers, coffee¬ 
house keepers, and in various other ways make their living in doing service to others. 
The hemalee supplies passengers with water, pouring it out of his brass spouted skin into 
a brass cup by which he measures it into the purchaser’s earthen vessel, which has a 
sprig of orange stuck in its mouth. The sharbctlee sells an infusion of raisins or licor¬ 
ice, or some other sweet substance ; and the musellikatel or pipe-cleaner goes about with 
a bundle of long wires and a bag of tow ready to clean any body’s shibook or long pipe. 
A favorite occupation at Cairo is that of beggar. Very little food and clothing are 
necessary in this climate, and starvation is a thing almost unheard of. The language of 
the Caireans is Arabic ; but in a city so full of many nationalities all tongues are heard, 
and everywhere European languages seem to be spoken and pretty well understood by 
the citizens of the Egyptian capital. Cairo is now, as it was of old, a great place for learn¬ 
ing. There are many students at the government colleges and national schools, while 
several thousand pupils attend the theological university attached to the mosque of Ezher. 
The most important people of Cairo now, the ruling class, are Turks, although there are 
greater numbers of Arabs, the former conquerors, than any other race. The Copts are 
descendants of the ancient Egyptians, but are no more numerous here now than Jews, 
Armenians, Syrians or Europeans. 

In ancient days Alexandria was the most grand, powerful and celebrated city of 
Egypt; the times have changed, and with them the fair city has gone through many 
stages of decline and decay, followed by reviving importance, till now it is, next to the 
French city of Marseilles, the greatest port on the Mediterranean Sea. The modern 
Alexandria lies rather westward of where the old Ptolemies’ capital stood, much of it 
where, then, there was no land. The city is situated chiefly on a broad neck between two 
harbors, originally a mole built out to the island in the sea. The ruins and soil that 
have gathered about the old dike, have made it a good sized peninsula now. The harbor 
on the East is called the New Port, while the westerly harbor is known as the Old Port. 


286 


Cities of the World . 


This is encircled almost half way round by the end of the island, which is now a part of 
the neck ; from this the port is further inclosed by a fine large breakwater. The city 
extends considerable distance along the lower banks of the harbors, and in scattered 
districts nearly to Lake Mareotis, which for a long way is only separated from the 
Mediterranean by a strip of land but a few miles in width. 

Alexandria is not a handsome nor a very interesting city ; it lies low, amid sandy, 
flat, and sterile surroundings. The way from the harbor lies through the narrow and 
irregular streets of the Turkish quarter, in which the houses seem to have been thrown 
together by chance ; and few have the Oriental appearance which is so interesting at 
Cairo. Here and there, however, you see a lattice work window or a Saracene arch, 
which make the street look picturesque. In the road through the bazars, which is a 
long one and can only be made on foot, there are many novel and eastern scenes. Beyond 
this, at the eastern end of the town, is the European quarter, the furthest from the Old 
Port, because, European vessels being formerly confined to the eastern harbor, the con¬ 
suls and merchants built their houses and carried on their business in that direction. 
This section of the city, called the Frank Quarter, is like an European town with handsome 
streets and squares built up with solid, stately buildings and occupied by excellent shops. 
Nearly all the streets have been paved lately. The principal hotels, shops, and bankers' 
and merchants’ offices are situated in the Great Square forming the European center of 
the city, which the native Alexandrians call the Place of Mohammed Ali. At one cor¬ 
ner is the English church, beside the handsome French Consulate ; the open body of the 
square is a favorite promenade, planted with trees and provided with seats. Here, pass¬ 
ing and repassing the fountains and the statuary, there is something like the same fan¬ 
tastic crowd you see in the great square of Cairo, except that the people of Alexandria 
are more mixed if any thing. About one-fourth of its two hundred thousand are Greeks, 
Italians, and—in fewer numbers—other Europeans. The avenues around the great square 
are broad and attractive thoroughfares leading to all parts of the city. The houses are 
built in large blocks called Okelles , but the public buildings are all plain and insignifi¬ 
cant, and neither mosques nor churches have any particular interest. There are Cleo¬ 
patra’s needle, however, and some other remains of ancient Alexandrian glories that every 
visitor goes to see. Pompey’s Pillar and some of the old tombs and churchyards are 
also full of historical interest ; but modern Alexandria has a long way to go yet before 
it can draw to itself any thing to compare with the interest felt for its magnificent pre¬ 
decessor. 

The principal means of traveling around the city is in carriages or on donkeys, both 
of which abound everywhere. The commerce of the city is in exportation of cotton, beans, 
corn, and sugar, gums, coffee, ivory, wool, linseed and mother of pearl to England and 
France ; and in importation of manufactured goods and coal from England, wood, oils, 
wines, and liquors, from the lower European countries ; raw silk, provisions and marbles, 


A lexandrta. 


287 

and stones. The native industries are principally embroidering in gold and silk, cotton 
weaving, making pipe-stems, tobacco, arms and some other old established crafts ; while 
the Europeans have introduced many factories for supplying home needs, like starch, 
soap, gas, candles and such things. The Eastern or New Port has only been used by 
small native vessels for a long time, being too much exposed to the north winds and un¬ 
safe from the rocks and shoals. The only noteworthy canal nowadays, is the Mahmoo- 



PLACE OF MOHAMMED ALI, ALEXANDRIA. 


deeyeh , which begins at the village of Atfeh, on a branch of the Nile, and extends fifty 
miles eastward with an average width of about a hundred feet. For some distance the 
right bank is bordered with the houses and gardens of wealthy Alexandrians and is the 
fashionable afternoon promenade. The terminus of the canal is at the Old Port, near 
the western outskirts of the city, where there are storehouses and quays and busy scenes 
of commercial life. 









INDIA. 


T HE largest city of Hindostan is Bombay. It covers part of the lower end of the 
island of Bombay, which lies not far from shore, at about the central point of the 
western coast line of the great peninsula. The view of the city from the entrance to 
the harbor is a beautiful one. Forests of motionless palm-trees cover the lower hills, 
along the margin of the shore. ■ ^ , N\ s 


The bays and river-like reaches 
of the sea are thick with islands 
whose masses of tropical green 
stand out clearly from the back¬ 
ground of singular hills, which in 
terraces, mounds or sharp pinna¬ 
cles lift themselves up to the 
cloudless sky above and from the 
gleaming blue sea sometimes over¬ 
hung by a soft bright haze. In the 
harbor are ships from every clime, 
of every size, lying at anchor, 
crowding the wharves, and num¬ 
berless boats with their large mat¬ 
ting sails and covered poop, and 
regular splashing oars gliding on 
countless errands here and there 
among the larger craft. The island 
of Bombay has an area of about 
twenty-two square miles, consist¬ 
ing of a plain about eleven miles 
long and three miles broad sur¬ 
rounded by two parallel lines of 
low hills. At the .south-west of 
the island an inward sweep of the 
sea forms a large shallow basin called the Back Bay ; but the frontage of the city is to¬ 
ward the east, overlooking the capacious harbor. This is not connected with the Bay, 
which is separated from the sea by small islands, connected with the larger one by cause- 



BEDOUIN AND FELLAH. 



Bombay . 


289 


ways. The most southerly of these is Calaba, and next above that is Old Woman’s Isle ; 
both are a sort of suburb of the larger island of Bombay. Above the Old Woman is the 
Fort, and beyond that a great railway terminus, and immense barracks extending to the 
European town, while about a mile still further north is the much larger native city, 
known as Black town. 

Beyond the net-work of masts and rigging that almost hides the docks, there are 
steeples and white houses showing among the trees the first glimpses of the famous 
city of Bombay, “ with its worshipers of fire and fine gold.” 

The first sight on landing at the celebrated port of Western India is a multitude of 
busy, half dressed black men. They are Coolies, or the laborers and porters of the city, 
a numerous class, whose rights and wrongs have been matters of serious discussion 
among great men. The town is well built, with spacious streets and substantial houses, 
but with very little grandeur. There are no imposing temples or mosques, no mighty 
public buildings,overlooking grand ' 

avenues or handsome squares ; nor 
is there any thing particularly ori¬ 
ental looking about the place, not 
even the camels, the radiant colors 
and fantastic crowds of Cairo. 

Notwithstanding it is so much 
further East it seems far less orien¬ 
tal than the Levantine towns. It 
is simply a broad level commercial 
city—in India, but of England—it 
is an Indian Liverpool. Neat 
broughams and carriages of Euro¬ 
pean build roll through its streets, dak-ghari traveling. 

carrying natives or aliens in much the same style ; but among these there are also numbers 
of the “wooden cabs— dak-gharies —with their Venetian blinds, buggies, buffalo carts and 
wagons, and sometimes quaint native conveyances. The crowds that walk along are 
chiefly made up of naked coolies, with legs like those of a crane ; and of white-robed, soft- 
faced,’large-eyed Parsees with white stockings and polished shoes ; of Hindoos, broad fea¬ 
tured or fine featured, dark complexioned or olive complexioned, all in turbans, and many 
holding white umbrellas as they waddle along, some, even of the better sort, with bare 
feet. There are no armed natives to be seen, but everywhere the commerce of an Euro¬ 
peanized city where every one is up to the ears in cotton.” Cotton cloth and yarn are the 
greatest manufactures of the city, while dyeing, tanning and working in metals are also ac¬ 
tive trades. Many people are employed in cultivating cocoanut trees and in preparing 
intoxicating drinks from the juice of different species of the palm. 






4 


290 


Cities of the World. 


Many of the fine dwellings look like huge Swiss cottages nestling among trees. 
These are one story buildings called bungalows j they are surrounded by a magnificent 
veranda, built on a platform raised about ten or twelve feet above the ground, and with a 
sort of corridor, having many doorways leading into beautiful rooms furnished 

after European fashion 
with some Oriental ad¬ 
ditions. On every side 
the veranda and the 
rooms beyond are open 
to catch all the breeze 
possible. The bunga¬ 
low usually stands in 
the midst of a garden 
full of flowers and roses, 
large leaved plants, 
Eastern exotics, the 
home of big butterflies, 
huge moths, and many 
sweetly piping birds. 
Every thing is arranged 
with the greatest com¬ 
fort, elegance and lux¬ 
ury. There are always 
great numbers of serv¬ 
ants connected with 
such a house—about 
forty in doors and out 
—all men, or boys, 
wearing turbans and 
white cotton garments, 
arid going about bare¬ 
footed. Enormous 
sums are paid for the 
rent of such houses; 
but then the expense 
temple and sacred elephant. of living in Bombay 

is great in every way, beyond that of any other town, in India, or perhaps in Europe. 

The private houses of the European residents lie apart both from the native and from 
the mercantile quarters of the town. The favorite of these suburbs is along the lower end 






































91 

ll 

V.jnns«5fii-fcK v 



f a 


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»Iwf 1 {fc»'f fjgt : 

• >iS t V r H* 
<.*%}¥ i ■. .yga • 

11 

n 

Ira83 

la&stt 


PALACE OF THE SETHS, 






































































































292 


Cities of the World ’ 


of the western shore of the island from Breach Candy to Malabar Point. The hand¬ 
somest houses are on the high ridge called Malabar Hill, which, terraced to the top with 
noble villas, forms the western inclosure of Back Bay, and commands one of the finest 
views in the world. The end of this hill is called the Malabar Point. Here stands the 
Government House close to the edge of the steep cliff overlooking the water. One of 
the most beautiful drives on the island is along the sea here, as far northward as Breach 
Candy. A short distance from the Government House throngs of Hindoos are fre¬ 
quently seen coming from the temple of Vdlukeshuar, or Sand Lord, which is quite a 
celebrated place, with its water tank and a noble flight of steps leading to it. The 
tank is shaded by fine trees and encircled by snow-white pagodas and neat houses of 
brahmans. The Hindoo temples usually have several small chapels or deep niches in 
the platform at one end where the strange looking images are kept. Three or four 
wretched looking yogies or ascetics usually sit on the ground, their bodies covered with 
ashes, their hair matted, and their blank faces looking too ignorant or too weak to be 
earnest or enthusiastic about any thing. Offerings to the holy men and to the gods, are 
placed before the yogies, such as little bouquets of flowers with vessels of holy water, 
fruit and rice. These yogies live on charity. The milk of the sacred cows, which are 
kept at the temples, is theirs. They are looked upon as holy men, but are, as a rule, 
beggars, liars, and in many ways a most unworthy set of human beings, who behave 
unlike men with divine natures. Another, and different sort of temple, of which there 
are many in Bombay, is devoted to fire worship, the Parsee religion. Unbelievers are 
not permitted to visit the most sacred of them. One that is near Malabar Point is a 
little square house with a pent roof and small iron-grated windows and a door strongly 
padlocked. Within a fire is kept burning with the sweetest kind of woods. It is never 
allowed to die out, and to throw any thing impure upon it is a crime. 

The Parsee cemetery is on the Hill, inclosing within its walls the Towers of Silence, 
which are about as high as a four-story house. “ When a fire-worshiper dies, his body 
is placed in the tower upon an iron grating that gradually slopes downward toward a 
sort of pit in the bottom. Vultures are generally to be seen perched on the top of the 
towers ; it is generally believed that they live upon the flesh of the dead, although this 
has been denied. Parsees will not tell, and strangers are not allowed in the towers 
when any bodies are exposed, so the matter remains an open question.” 

The small eastern peninsula of Bombay which lies between Back Bay and the har¬ 
bor is mainly occupied by the fort, but the city is well built up all the way around the 
bay, and has some fine streets, and a long, broad esplanade leading from Malabar to the 
fort, or lying between the latter and the closely built-up city above. The old castle 
stands in about the center of the fortifications overlooking the harbor, while on the land 
side a long semi-circular line of ramparts and moats extends from about a half-mile 
above to a half-mile below the central point. The castle, which is the oldest part of the 



PARSEE CHILDREN. t 

lished with statuary and surrounded on all sides by. large public buildings, including 
the Grecian-looking mint and the cathedral. 

If the European quarter seems an ordinary commonplace looking town, it is clean 
and respectable, which can not be said of Black town. “ No Irish village of the worst 
kind has a look of greater poverty, confusion and utter discomfort. The low huts are 
covered with palm leaves, the drains are open, the naked children have naked fathers 
and miserable looking mothers, and no one seems to attempt to make the homes look 
decent.” The houses of the wealthy are little better managed, but stand out of sight in 
the midst of a cool garden. 


Bombay . 


2 93 


fort, was built, or partly built, by the Portuguese, who held the island in the sixteenth 
century. 

Adjoining the castle to the south is the Hornby battery, with its score of guns; next 
to this is the Custom House with other batteries beyond. 

The Town Hall, which is the best, and about the only really fine building in Bom¬ 
bay, stands in front of the castle, its colonnade overlooking the fifteen-acre park of the 
fort familiarly known as the Green, and it is partially shaded by tamarind trees, embel- 









AT SCHOOL. 

and rosewater,, pure ivory from Ceylon, rhinoceros hides from Zanzibar, the richest 
produce of Africa, India, Persia and Arabia, is here cast in large heaps, mingling with 
Coir cables, huge blocks, and ponderous anchors,” for they are soon to be exported to 
craftsmen who will make the rich materials doubly valuable by their skillful handling. 
“ On the highway porters bending beneath square balls of tightly compressed cotton, 
stagger to and fro ; Arabs with ponderous turbans of finely checked cloth and Aabas 
loosely flowing lounge lazily along ; Persians in silken vests with black lambskin caps, 
the softest produce of Bokhara, tower above the dense crowd of human beings, jostling 


2 94 


Cities of the World. 


The climate is so warm that their home life is almost all out of doors ; the children 
are round, plump and shiny ; no one needs much clothing, and a little rice is all the 
food necessary. 

Perhaps the most interesting places in the city are the great bazars. The build¬ 
ings are three or four stories high, with elaborately carved pillars and ornamental 
work on the fronts, lining both sides of the narrow streets. They are crowded with 
people and over-loaded with goods of every description. The chintz bazar, the 
most curious of any, skirts that part of the bay, where the native shipping gath¬ 
ers. Here the “ merchandise and produce of all nations seem garnered in one 
common store. Piles of rich gums and aromatic spices, carboys of oil 



Bombay. 295 

against each other in one great dusty, noisy throng. Banians, dirty and bustling, wear¬ 
ing red turbans, bristling with memoranda ; Bangies with suspended bales, or well-filled 
water vessels ; Fakirs from every part of India ; Jains in the snowy vests, and with staff 
and brush ; Padres with round black hat and sable coats ; Jews,” and countless others 
make up the ever changing, moving mass, through which a bullock carriage will now and 
then force its way, or a Parsee will dash in his gayly painted buggy. The Arab stables 


TOMB AT AHAR. 

which occupy a considerable space in the great bazar, are a great attraction to the 
gentlemen of the Presidency, for all military men in India consider it necbssary to own 
at least a couple of horses. 

Most of the eight hundred thousand people in Bombay are Hindoos and Mohamme¬ 
dans, while about ten thousand are Europeans, and three times that many are Parsees, 
or descendants of Persian fire-worshipers. These are among the richest and the best 
people of the Presidency. The capital of British India is Calcutta. It is a city of 
about a thousand less people than Bombay, and lies on the Hoogly River, about a 































296 


Cities of the World. 


hundred miles from where it empties into the Bay of Bengal. This substantial, stately 
city is very unlike Bombay. It is “ in every respect worthy of being the capital of the 
realm, incomparable to any other Eastern city.” It lies on the left, or upper, the eastern 
bank of the broad river, skirted by a canal on the land side, threaded by broad hand¬ 
some streets, running at right angles to each other, with an intricate net-work of narrow 
lanes between. Along the river runs the Strand, much as in the greatest English capital. 
None of the streets are paved, but the water carriers keep the dust down from their 
great skin vessels and the splendid blocks of mansions are finer than those of any other 
Hindoo city. “ The breadth of the great thoroughfares, the size and the imposing style 
of the residences which line them, the spacious arrangements for air and gardens for 
shade which the climate makes necessary, all tend to spread the European portion of 
Calcutta over a greater extent of ground than any other capital; and give, it must be 
added, a certain sadness and dullness to the place in spite of the brilliant sunlight.” 
The heat is so intense that the interiors of all houses have to be darkened by somber 
green blinds on the windows. Some of the houses have rather a dilapidated look, from 
the blotches and stains that the weather, with its monsoon rains and scorching summer 
heat, makes on the plaster with which the walls are built. 

The glory of Calcutta is the Maidan or Park. It is a large parallelogram, with the 
Government House, stately and imposing, standing at one end, with the Town Hall, 
Treasury, and High Court near by. Opposite is Fort William, occupying the center of 
the plain, which lies for a mile and a half along the river’s edge at the southern end of 
town. Along the one side is the noble street of Chowsinghee with its princely dwellings ; 
while parallel with and opposite to it flows the great river. No other city has a fine 
stream so near to the Park, the fashionable drive and the beautiful homes. And, 
moreover, this river is the Hoogly branch 1 of the old Ganges, whose waters are sacred to 
the Hindoo nation. In the evening every body seems to enjoy this luxury. Carriage after 
carriage rolls along with native drivers and footmen, without shoes or stockings. The 
Viceroy’s carriage is often among the rest, with its outriders and splendid looking mounted 
body-guard dressed in high boots and scarlet uniform, and bearing lance and pennon. Na¬ 
tive gentlemen—but never ladies—of every title, rank, from the prince, or the rich merchant, 
down to the most ordinary and commonplace Oriental, pass in equipages and dress cor¬ 
responding to their respective rank and wealth. Only, no one goes on foot, for such 
exercise, if taken at all, is at early morning. Flowing beside all this busy stream of 
human life is the grand old river, with the finest ships of the commercial navies of all 
nations riding on its broad tide. Here there are no ugly wharfs or storehouses ; they are 
further along. The banks and the waters of the river are both fair and pure. But along 
the shore near the busiest haunts of the commercial city dying creatures, half immersed 
in the sacred waters, may be seen at any hour ; and there, too, are dead bodies in the 
process of burning. 


Calcutta. 


2 97 

The Indian side of Calcutta is quite as characteristic of its Eastern inhabitants as 
the other is of its Western. Miserable-looking huts are huddled together in the midst 
of which cows, buffaloes, goats, naked children, and lank-looking grown folks rove about, 
every one as it wishes. There are about sixty thousand such huts in the city, for this is 
the most densely peopled part of the capital. Out of the sixteen square miles covered 
by Calcutta, six are occupied by the native town, and contain more than half the popu¬ 
lation. The streets are generally narrow, and the dusty brick houses which line them 
have not a single picturesque feature, even the bazars are uninteresting, except for the 



MOSQUE AT BENARES. 

crowds, whose turbans of various shapes, sizes and colors, look like a bed oi moving 
tulips. In some of the streets there is a small stream of- water in an open channel raised 
two or three feet above the roadway. This rivulet of Ganges water has great value in 
the eyes of the natives, who sit by it at their work, or have their shops open upon it. 

The hour of dinner in India is generally eight o’clock, in the cool of the evening after 
the labors of the day are over ; and these are very substantial affairs with European 
residents. It is the custom also, to rise early, so as to enjoy the cool of the morning. 

The houses of the native aristocracy in Calcutta are always large, but seem to be in 
a state of confusion, neglected and dirty. The rooms or cells, off its verandas, are fur- 















298 


Cities of the World. 


nished in the native style, which to us would look decidedly unfurnished ; but one room 
kept for show, or foj* entertaining Europeans, is filled with comforts and luxuries familiar 
to us. An English traveler, describing the most aristocratic house he saw in India, 
says : “ It was a large, square-looking palace, surrounded by a considerable space of 
ground, high railings separating it from the streets of the native town. A huge bull 
was feeding in the large ‘ compound,’ or, as we would say, on the grounds. There was 
a guard of native infantry at the main entrance to the house, the owner being of high 
rank. Around the compound was a very large and interesting collection of beasts and 
birds, many of them rare, and arranged as in the Zoological Gardens ; among the ani¬ 
mals was a huge and venerable tortoise, which had been in the possession of the family 
for about seventy years, having been more than that age when purchased by them. The 
house was built in the form of a square, with an inner court. The drawing-room and all 
the apartments for guests were splendidly furnished in the best European style, but none 
of these are occupied by the family.” The private life of all natives is in very 
simple apartments with more or less disorder and neglect ; but these the visitor does 
not see, and would never imagine from the polished manners and extravagant luxury 
of their reception-rooms. 

Representatives of all the leading races and forms of religious belief in the world 
are to be found here. Calcutta has over a hundred and seventy heathen temples. Many 
are insignificant, many others important. Altogether, the English capital of India has so 
many fine buildings, that, like St. Petersburg, it is sometimes called the City of Palaces. 
It is the greatest commercial center in Asia ; it sends out large quantities of jute, cotton, 
rice, sugar, indigo, coffee, tea, saltpeter, linseed, shellac, buffalo horns, hides, and other 
things ; its industries are many, but the principal ones are sugar works, mills for cotton, 
flour, and oil, and extensive shipbuilding.* 

One of the best built cities of India is Madras, an important southern seaport in 
the Bay of Bengal. The Hindoo temples and palaces are few ; the buildings have an 
European look. Among the finest of these are three cathedrals, several colleges, a 
museum, and an astronomical observatory. As in Calcutta, the streets of the native 
town are narrow and squalid, while those of the European part are wide and hand¬ 
some. 

With its nine suburbs Madras lies along the coast for nine miles, and extending 
inland about three and a half miles wide. The fort is in about the center of the shore 
line, with the public buildings. The low lying native district on the north is Black 
town, defended from the sea by a strong stone bulwark. The city carries on a large 
trade, although it has no harbor. Ships anchor two miles from shore, while their cargoes 
and passengers are landed through the surf in light flat-bottomed boats ; but sometimes 
the surf is too high for these, and then the fishermen go out on log rafts, or perhaps do 
not attempt to breast the waves. 


Madras . 



2 99 

Coffee is the largest export from Madras, while it has also a large trade in rice, cot¬ 
ton, hides, and skins. The population of the city is about four hundred, and fifty 
thousand, the same as the great German seaport of Hamburg. 


HINDOO IDOLS. 




























CHINA. 


A BOUT one-twelfth of all the land on the globe, and about one-third of all the 
people in the world belong to the Empire of China. For more than four hundred 
and fifty years the capital of this vast nation has been Pekin, which next to London 
and Paris is the largest city in the world. It stands at the base of a hill on the river 
Tunghin, about a hundred miles from the China Sea. Long before the Christian era it 
was the capital of the Yen kingdom, and was the imperial seat of many of the later 
dynasties. Its ancient wall, of earth with brick put on the outside, is about twenty 
miles long, and incloses nearly twenty-six square miles, and between one and two 
million people. The wall varies from thirty to fifty feet high, and from fifteen to sixty 
feet thick. Every fifty feet there is an opening for cannon or muskets, and in many 
places there is an incline on the inner side, so that horsemen can go, without slipping, 
from one level to a higher one, till they reach the top of the wall, which is paved like a 
roadway. There are square towers or buttresses built out from this parapeted wall> 
only about fifty yards apart all the way around. Outside of each of the thirteen gates 
leading from the city to the open country, there is a small suburb, which, altogether, 
forms quite an important part of Pekin. The gates are very interesting and curious, 
each with its watch-tower nine stories high, perforated with many cannon holes. The 
moat around the city is fed from the Tunghurei River, which also supplies all the other 
canals leading across or through the city. Pekin is in two parts, that are in reality two 
separate cities ; the Northern or Tartar city is longer than it is broad, and the Southern 
or Chinese city, adjoining it on the south, is broader than it is long, so the general shape 
of Pekin is like the letter T upside down. The Northern, also called the Tartar and 
the Manchu City, is a trifle the larger, containing fifteen square miles, and most of the 
important places of the capital, and its walls, which on the south inclose it from the 
southern city, are twice as thick and much higher than those of the other division. The 
northern city has three parts, one within another. The smallest, occupying a square in 
the center, is inclosed by a wall covered with bright yellow tiles, guarded by numerous 
stations of bannermen and soldiers, and surrounded by a deep wide moat ; it is divided 
into three sections by two walls running from south to north. In the center division are 
the buildings especially devoted to the Emperor, and whenever he passes through it a 
bell placed in the tower above is struck ; when the troops return in triumph, a drum is 
beaten, and the prisoners are presented to him, and other state ceremonies take place. 



HIGH STREET, PEKIN: 

































































































































































































3° 2 


Cities of the World. 


Beyond the southern gate leading to this division there is a large, handsome court, and 
beyond that another, paved with marble, and ending on the sides by gates, porticos, and 
pillared corridors. At the head of this is a superb marble structure, over a hundred 
feet high, and standing on a great marble terrace. Five flights of stairs, decorated with 
balustrades and sculptures, lead up to this Hall of Highest Peace, and five doors open 
through into the next court-yard. Upon the great throne in the midst of this spacious 
pillared hall, the Emperor holds his levees on New Year’s Day, his birthday, and other 
state occasions ; about fifty courtiers stand near him, while those of noble and lower 
dignity and rank stand in the court below in regular grades. Beyond this are the Hall 
of Central Peace, and the Palace of Heavenly Purity, that is, the Emperor’s dwelling. 
The last is the most important, and the loftiest and most magnificent of all the palaces. 
In the court before it is a small tower of gilt copper, adorned with a great number of 
figures, and on each side are large incense vases, for religious use. Beyond it stands 
the Palace of Earth’s Repose, where the wife of the Emperor, “ Heaven’s Consort,” 
rules her miniature court in the imperial harem. There are numerous smaller buildings 
in this part of the Forbidden City, and adjoining the northern wall is the imperial 
Flower Garden, adorned with elegant pavilions, temples, and groves, and interspersed 
with canals, fountains, pools, and flower-beds. In the eastern division of the Prohibited 
city are the offices of the Cabinet and the Treasury of the palace. North of it lies the 
Hall of Intense Thought, where sacrifices are offered to Confucius and other sages. 
Near by is the Library or Hall of the Literary Abyss, and at the northern end of the 
division are numerous palaces and buildings occupied by princes of the blood. The 
western division contains a great variety of edifices, among which are the Hall of Distin¬ 
guished Sovereigns, the Guardian Temple of the City, the Court of Controller, for states¬ 
men and literati, and the Printing Office. The Court paper, generally called the Pekin 
Gazette , has lately somewhat altered its form, and changed its name to King Pao , which 
means Metropolitan Reporter. This is the oldest newspaper in the world ; it was estab¬ 
lished in the year 91 1, and has been published regularly since 1351. Under the new 
arrangements three editions are published ; the first, the King-Paou , printed upon yellow 
paper, constitutes the official gazette of the Middle Kingdom ; the second, the Hsing- 
Paou (commercial journal), also printed upon yellow sheets, contains information inter¬ 
esting to the trading community ; while the third, the Titani Paou (provincial gazette), 
printed upon red paper, consists of extracts from the other two editions. The total cir¬ 
culation of the three issues is fifteen hundred copies. The editorship is confined to a 
committee of six members of the Academy of Han-Lin. 

The second inclosure, or Imperial City, is about three times as large as the Prohibited 
City, oblong in shape, with a gate in each of the four walls. Outside the southern 
entrance there is quite a large space walled in, with a gate on the south called that of 
Great Purity ; and no one is allowed to enter it except on foot, unless by special permis- 


.'f.nnuf/jfiiv 



STREET IN HONG KONG 



































































































304 Cities of the World. 

sion. In the Imperial City are the palaces of the princes, temples, and some of the 
government offices. 

In all Chinese buildings, from palace to hovel, both temples and private dwellings, 
there is one general style of steep concave roof. Dwelling-houses are usually of one 
story, having neither cellars nor basements, and lighted by lattices opening into a court ; 
they must not be as high as the temples near by, nor be ornamented in the same fashion 
as the palaces and religious buildings. The houses are commonly made of bricks, adobe 
or matting for the walls, stone for the foundation, brick tiling for the roof, and wood 
only for the inside work ; stone and wooden houses are so rare that they always attract 
attention. In the better sort of houses the stonework of the foundation rises three or 
four feet above the ground. This is not stone from the solid rock of the earth, but a 
manufactured article, made of sifted earth, that is, decomposed granite or gravel and 
lime mixed with water, and sometimes a little oil, pounded into a solid mass. The frame¬ 
work under the wide eaves of the palaces is tastefully painted in green and gold, and 
protected by a netting of copper wire. The yellow and green glazed tiles of public 
buildings, and the dragons’ heads and globes on their ridgepoles, and the earthen dogs 
at the corners of temples and official houses make some of the streets very pictur¬ 
esque. The rooms of the dwellings are arranged in sets, separated and lighted by 
courts between, and reached by corridors. Town houses have no opening on their 
fronts except the door, and when the outer walls of several houses join those of gardens 
and inclosures, the long line of the whole street is unbroken by steps, windows, bal¬ 
conies, porticos, or front yards. The bricks are the same size as our own, and usually 
burned to a grayish slate color. The walls are often stuccoed, or occasionally rubbed 
smooth and pointed with fine cement. In place of a broad cornice the top is frequently 
relieved by a pretty ornament of molded work of painted clay figures in high relief, 
representing a battle scene, a landscape, clusters of flowers, or some other design, de¬ 
fended from the weather by the projecting eaves, a covered corridor communicating with 
each, or by side passages leading through the courts. Here, and in all cities where the 
houses are cramped and the lots irregular in shape, the size and shape of the rooms vary. 

In the second inclosure are the Great Temple of the imperial ancestors and other 
altars and temples, very holy to the Chinese, and most interesting to foreigners. In the 
northern part of this division of the city a moat and wall, more than a mile around, 
inclose the Prospect Hill. This is an artificial mound nearly a hundred and fifty feet 
high, with each of its five summits crowned with a temple, while trees of various kinds 
border its base, and line the paths leading to the tops. The western part of this inclos¬ 
ure is chiefly occupied by the beautiful Western Park ; a lake in the center is adorned 
with the splendid lotus, crossed by a fine marble bridge from one bank to another, 
shaded by groves of trees, under which are well paved walks, leading to other parks 
adjoining. Although these parks are designed to be as handsome as possible, the effect 


Pekin . 


305 


of their beauty is marred by poor keeping. There are about two hundred palaces in the 
inclosures, each of which is said to be large enough to accommodate the greatest of 
European noblemen with all his retinue. 

Along the avenue leading south from the Imperial City to the division wall, are the 
principal government offices, a temple for the worship of ancestors in the midst of a 
grove of fir and other trees, and, partly upon the wall, is the Observatory, under the 
care of Chinese astronomers. The instruments are arranged on a terrace higher than 
the city wall, and are beautiful pieces of bronze art, though now too antiquated to be 
useful for practical observations. Some distance from here is one of the many 
lamasaris of the city. This is the Buddhist Convent of Eternal Peace, wherein about 
fifteen hundred Mongol and Tibetan priests study the dogmas of Buddhism, or spend 
their days in idleness, under the control of a Genen, or living Buddha. Directly west of 
this, presenting the greatest contrast to its life and activity, lies the Confucian Temple, 
where, embowered in a grove of ancient cypresses, stands the imposing Literary Temple, 
in which the “ Example and Teacher of all Ages ” and ten of his great disciples are 
worshiped. 

The division of the Northern Pekin, lying outside the Imperial City, is called the 
General City. This is the home of the people ; it is more densely populated than the 
other parts and contains the most important of the public offices, all the foreign lega¬ 
tions, and many other places of special note in the empire. 

The Chinese government is a remarkable one for many reasons : it is very ancient; 
it rules vast multitudes of people, who are, in the main, quiet, able and industrious. 
The general plan is like that of a great household. The Emperor is the father, or sire, 
the head of the house ; his officers are the responsible elders of its provinces, depart¬ 
ments, and districts, as every father of a household is of its inmates ; and nowhere has 
this system been so thoroughly regulated and so consistently carried out for so long a 
time, as in China. Nominally there is nothing to correspond to a congress or parliament 
in the Chinese government, still there are two imperial councils, the Cabinet, or Imperial 
Chancery, and the Council of State, each of which has different power, the Council 
more than the Cabinet. Subordinate to these two Councils are several Boards, each of 
which looks after special divisions of the government interests, and below them come 
rank after rank of inferior officers, none of which are in any way elected by the people. 
All officers of government are supposed to be ready to see visitors on special business 
at any time, and the door of justice is open to all who claim a hearing ; and in fact, 
courts are held at all hours of night and day, though the regular time is from sunrise to 
noonday. Magistrates are not allowed to go abroad in ordinary dress or without their 
official retinue, which varies for the different grades of rank. 

North of the Imperial City lies the extensive Yamun of the Ti-tuh , who has the 
police and garrison of the city under his control and exercises great authority in its civil 


3°6 


Cities of the World. 


administration. Close by are the Drum and Bell Towers on the street that leads through 
the center of the northern part of the General City to the Wall. Each of the towers is 
over a hundred feet high. The drum and bell are sounded at night watches, and can 
be heard throughout the city ; an ancient clypsydra is still kept to mark time, although 
clocks are now in general use and correct the errors of the clypsydra itself. Outside of 
the south-western angle of the Imperial City stands the Mohammedan Mosque, and a 
large number of Turks whose ancestors were brought from Turkestan about a century 
ago live in its vicinity ; this is the chief resort of Moslems who come to the capital. 
There are religious edifices in the Chinese metropolis appropriated to many forms of 
religion, for the inhabitants of the city are divided into sects of the Greek, Latin and 
Protestant Churches ; Islams, Buddhists, Rationalists, worshipers of ancestors, of State, 
of Confucius, and other mortals whom they look upon as having become gods, beside a 
great number of popular idols of the country. The principal streets of the General City 
are from a hundred and forty to two hundred feet wide ; they are unpaved, and lined 
with rows of shops, painted red, blue and green, and decorated with curious signs of 
Chinese characters in gilding or gayly painted colors, and balustrades and terraces on the 
roofs. The broad thoroughfares leading across Pekin, from one gate to the other, 
appear even wider than they are from the lowness of the buildings ; the center is about 
two feet higher than the sides. The cross streets in the main city are generally at right 
angles with them, not over forty feet wide, and for the most part occupied with dwellings. 
The inhabitants of the avenues are required to keep them well sprinkled in summer ; but 
in rainy weather they are almost impassable from the mud and deep puddles, the level 
surface of the ground, and obstructed, neglected drains, preventing rapid drainage. The 
crowds which throng these avenues, some engaged in various callings, along the side or 
in the middle of the way, others busily passing and repassing, together with the gay 
appearance of the sign-boards, and an air of business in the shops, make the great streets 
very bustling—and to a foreigner a most interesting—scene. Shop-fronts can be 
entirely opened when necessary ; they are constructed of panels or shutters fitting into 
grooves, and secured to a row of strong posts set into mortises. At night, when the shop 
is closed, nothing of it can be seen from without; but it is gay and full of life in the day¬ 
time when the goods are exposed. The sign-boards are often broad planks, fixed in 
stone vases on each side of the shop-front, and reaching to the eaves, or above them ; 
the characters are large and of different colors, and in order to attract more notice the 
signs are often hung with various colored flags, bearing inscriptions setting forth the 
excellence of the goods. The shops in the 'Outer city are often built in this manner, 
others are more compact for warmth in winter, but as a whole they are not brilliant in 
their fittings. Their signs are, when possible, images of the articles sold, and always have 
the red pennon attached ; the finer shop-fronts are covered with gold-leaf, brilliant when 
new, but fading soon, and then shabby enough. So the appearance of the main streets 



FAMILY DINNER 





































































































































































































































































































































3°8 


Cities of the World. 

is a curious mixture of decay and decoration, increased by the dilapidated temples and 
governmental buildings everywhere seen, and which the treasury of the Empire is not 
full enough to remedy. 

The most picturesque of all the Chinese capitals is Hangchau, of the maritime 
country of Chehkiang. This is about the size of Ohio, and while it is the smallest of the 
eighteen provinces, it is one of the richest of all. Hangchau is but one of its great cities, 
and is situated in the northern part near the river Tsientang. One half of the people 
live within the city walls, and the other dwell in the surrounding suburbs or on the 
waters. 

The southern city, beyond the southern walls, or cross-wall, as it is called, of the 
Inner City, is mostly inhabited by Chinese, and has more dissipation and less dignity and 
good behavior than the northern city ; contains hundreds of lewin-kwan , or club-houses, 
erected by the gentry of cities and districts of all parts of the empire to accommodate 
their citizens while staying at the capital. Its streets are narrow, but every thing about 
its buildings and markets shows that the people are industrious and full of life, and store¬ 
houses, theaters, granaries and markets attract or supply their customers from all parts 
of the country. 

During the night the thoroughfares are quiet; they are lighted a little by lanterns 
hanging before the houses, but generally are dark and cheerless. Carts, mules, and 
donkeys and horses are to be hired in all the thoroughfares. 

Nearly one half of the Outer City is empty of dwellings, much of the open land being 
cultivated. But the principal part of the provision required for the supply of this 
immense city comes from the southern provinces, and from flocks reared beyond the wall. 
It has no important manufactures, horn lanterns, wall papers, stone snuff-bottles, and 
pipe mouth-pieces being the chief ones. Trade in silks, foreign fabrics, and food is 
limited to supplying the local demand, inasmuch as a heavy duty at the gates 
restrains all enterprise. No foreign merchant is allowed to carry on business here. The 
government of Pekin differs from that of other cities in the empire, in its divisions and 
officers. 

The environs beyond the suburbs outside the gates, are occupied by tombs, tem¬ 
ples, private mansions, hamlets, and cultivated fields, in or near which are trees, so that 
the city viewed from a distance appears as if situated in a thick forest. About seven 
miles to the north-west at Yuen ming Yuen is the Emperor’s summer palace, occupying 
about twelve square miles of beautiful country. The land in this direction rises into 
gentle hills, and has been made to present a great variety of hill and dale, woodland 
and lawns, interspersed with pools, lakes, caverns, and islets joined by bridges and walks. 
Some parts are tilled, and groves or tangled thickets occur here and there, and places are 
purposely left wild to contrast the better with the cultivated precincts of a place, or form 
a rural pathway to a retired temple or arbor. 



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STREET IN CANTON. 

























































































































































































































































































































































































3io 


Cities of the World . 


At the foot of the White Cloud hills, on the north bank of the Pearl river is Canton, 
in wealth the first city in China. The part of Canton inclosed by walls is about six 
miles in circumference ; having a partition wall running east and west, which divides it 
into two unequal parts. The entire circuit, including the suburbs, is nearly ten miles. 
The population on land and water is said to be over a million and a half. There are at 
least as many houses without the walls as within them, besides the boats. The city is 
constantly increasing ; many new streets in the western suburbs have been entirely built 
up within the last ten years. The houses stretch along the river from opposite the Fa tU 
or flower grounds, to French Folly, a distance of four miles, and the banks are every¬ 
where nearly hidden by the boats and rafts. The foundations of the city walls are of 
sandstone, their upper part of brick ; they are about twenty feet thick, and twenty-five to 
forty feet high, having an esplanade on the inside, and .pathways leading to the rampart, 
on three sides. The houses are built near the wall on both sides of it, so that except on 
the north, one hardly sees it when walking around the city. There are twelve outer 
gates, four in the partition wall, and two water gates, through which boats pass into the 
moat from east to west. A ditch once encompassed the walls, now dry on the northern 
side ; on the other three, and within the city, it and most of the canals are filled by the 
tide, which, as it runs out does much to cleanse the city. The gates are all shut at night, 
and a guard is stationed near them to keep order, but sometimes the idle soldiers cause 
considerable disturbance. From the hill on the north, the city is a tame sight of red¬ 
dish roofs often hidden by frames for drying or dyeing, or shaded and relieved by a few 
orangeptrees, and interspersed with high, red poles for flag-staffs. Far above the watch- 
towers on the walls, the five storied tower on the Kwanyin shan near the northern gate, and 
the two prominent pagodas, shoot up above the level of the roofs. Amid all this shines 
the river, covered with boats of different colors and sizes, some stationary, others mov¬ 
ing, and all resounding with the mingled hum of laborers, sailors, musicians, hucksters, 
children, and boatwomen, pursuing their work or pleasures. On a low sandstone ledge, 
in the channel, off the city, once stood the Sea Pearl Fort, called Dutch Folly by 
foreigners. Beyond, on its southern shore, lie the suburb and island of Honam, and 
green fields and low hills are seen still further in the distance ; at the western angle of 
this island the Pearl River divides, at the Macao Passage, the largest body of water 
flowing south and leaving a comparatively narrow channel before the city. The hills on 
the north rise twelve hundred feet, their sides for miles being covered with graves and 
tombs. The streets of this vast city are more than six hundred, with some of the 
strangest of names, as Dragon street, Martial Dragon street, Golden Flower street, New 
Green Pea street, Physic street, and many more equally odd. They are not dirty, as 
those of some other cities in the empire, although they can not be compared to modern 
cities of the West. Along the water side, wherever the river rises into the city, the 
houses are built upon piles. There are many temples and many public build- 


Canton. 


3 ” 

ings in Canton. The temples throughout all China are generally cheerless and gloomy 
abodes. The entrance courts are usually occupied by hucksters, and beggars, and idlers, 
who are occasionally driven off to give room for the mat-sheds in which theatrical 
performances got up by priests are given. The principal hall, where the idol sits 
enshrined, is lighted oddly in front, and the altar, drums, bells, and other furniture of the 
temple do not enliven it much ; “ the cells and cloisters are inhabited by men almost as 
senseless as the idols they serve, miserable beings, whose droning, useless life is too often 
only a cloak for vice, indolence, and crime,” which make the Chinese priests, as a class, 
despised by their countrymen. Canton is the most influential city in Southern China, 



CHINESE MODES OF TORTURE. 

and throughout the empire it has a reputation for riches and luxury, from the fact 
that for two hundred years, up to 1843, it engrossed all the foreign trade of the country. 
A series of troubles and some bad fires greatly distressed the city after that, but it has 
recovered largely and is in a flourishing condition now. The trades and manufac¬ 
tories are mainly connected with the foreign commerce. Many silk fabrics for the 
Canton market are woven at Falshan, a large town on the west of the city ; fire-crackers, 
paper, mat-sails, cotton cloth, and other articles are also made there for exportation. 
There are, including embroiderers, about fifty thousand people in Canton engaged in 























312 


Cities of the World. 


weaving cloth, while seven thousand as barbers, and four thousand two hundred as shoe¬ 
makers are stated as the number licensed to shave the crowns and shoe the soles of their 
fellow citizens. 

The recreation grounds of the Cantonese are on the opposite side of the river, 
among the fields of the suburb of Honamy, or in the cool grounds of the great temple. 
The flower gardens, where pleasure parties go, are a couple of miles up the river. 

The chief sights of the city are said to be the peak of Yeahsin, just within the walls 
on the north of the city, the Lyre Pagoda at Whampoa, and the Eastern Sea Fish-pearl, 
the ledge where Dutch Folly stood ; the pavilion of the Five Genii, with the five stone 
rams, and near by, the print of a man’s foot in the rock, always filled with water, the natives 
tell you ; the rocks of Yu-shan ; the lucky wells of Fankin in the western suburbs ; and 
a famous red building in the city ; But to a stranger the ordinary sights of this vast 
metropolis are the most interesting ; they are the narrow streets, houses and shops 
huddled together, the numerous temples and assembly halls, people, and the gardens, tea 
houses and pools that are open to the public and always thronged with people. 

The gayest and the best built cities of the empire are in the province of Kiangsu, 
which lies along the sea-coast and is about the size of Pennsylvania. Here the beauties 
and riches of China are collected and displayed by nature in vast fields producing grain, 
cotton, tea, silk and rice, and watered by the Great River, the Grand Canal, many smaller 
streams and canals, and a succession of lakes along the line of the canal. From here 
come the most perfect of Chinese manufactures ; so that any thing of extra fine workman¬ 
ship is attributed to the capital, Nanking, which is called by the natives Kiangning fu. 
It was once the metropolis of the Ming dynasty, and is now compared to Rome in its 
partially deserted condition, with so many melancholy remains of departed glory stand¬ 
ing round. Both of these, however, have no brighter prospects for the future. Not far 
from the walls there are several ancient guardian statues of warriors cased in armor, 
which form an avenue leading to the sepulcher where the Emperor Hung wu was buried 
about 1398. Some distance further are a number of rude colossal figures of horses, ele¬ 
phants, and other animals, all intended to represent the guardians of the dead. Nanking 
is most celebrated abroad for the great Porcelain Tower which stood here until about 
thirty years ago, when the Tai-pings blew it up from a superstition that it would work 
against their cause. The manufactures of the city are extensive in fine satin and crape, 
Nankeen cotton cloth, paper, so-called India ink, and beautiful artificial flowers and 
pith paper. It is renowned, too, as an official center, for its scholars and literary char¬ 
acters, and stands among the first places of learning in the country, with large libraries 
and book-stores. 

In Suchan Kiangsu has a still larger and a richer city than Nanking. It is situ¬ 
ated on islands lying in the Ta hu, and from this sheet of water many streams and canals 
connect the city with most parts of the province. The walls are about ten miles in cir- 



TEMPLE OF THE FIVE HUNDRED GODS IN CANTON. 



























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Cities of the World. 


3H 

cumference ; outside of them are four suburbs, one of which is said to extend ten miles, 
beside which there is an immense floating population—probably about a million in all. 
The whole space includes many canals and pools connected with the Grand Canal and 
the lake, through highly cultivated surroundings. The Chinese regard this as one oi 
their richest and most beautiful cities, and have a saying “ that to be happy on earth, one 
must be born in Suchan, live in Canton, and die in Lianchau, for in the first are the 
handsomest people, in the second the most costly luxuries, and in the third the best cof¬ 
fins.” The high buildings, the elegant tombs, the picturesque scenery of waters and 
gardens, the politeness and intelligence of the people, and the beauty of the women of 
Suchan give it a high reputation. Its manufactures of silk, linen, cotton, and works in 
iron, ivory, wood, horn, glass, lacquered-ware, paper, and other articles, are the chief 
sources of its wealth and prosperity ; the kinds of silk goods produced here are more 
rich and in greater variety than those woven in any other place. Vessels come up to the 
city by several channels from the Yangtze-kiang, but junks of large burden anchor at 
Shanghai. The whole country is so cut up by natural and artificial water-courses that 
the people have hardly any need of roads and carts, but get about in barrows and sedans. 
Small steamers find their way to every large village at high tide. 

South-east of Suchan, leading through a continual range of villages and cities is 
Shanghai, whose name means“approaching the sea.” It is one of the leading commercial 
cities of Asia. It is on the north shore of the Wasung River, about fourteen miles from 
its mouth, with communications to many of the large cities on the Grand Canal of China. 
Like nearly all the cities of the empire, it is surrounded by walls and ditches and entered • 
by lofty gates. The population is about five hundred thousand. It is a dirty place, and 
poorly built. The houses are mostly made of bluish square brick, and the streets, which 
are paved with stone slabs, are only about eight feet wide, and, in the daytime, crowded 
with people. Silk and embroidery, cotton and cotton goods, porcelain, ready-made 
clothes, beautiful skins and furs, bamboo pipes of every size, bamboo ornaments, pic¬ 
tures, bronzes, specimens of old porcelain, and other curiosities, highly valued by the 
Chinese, are gathered in the Shanghai shops in great quantities. The most extensive 
trade, however, is carried on in articles of food. It is sometimes difficult to get through 
the streets from the immense quantities of fish, pork, fruit, and vegetables which crowd 
the stands in front of the shops. Dining rooms, tea houses, bakers’ shops, are seen at 
every step, from the poor man who carries around his kitchen or bake-house, altogether 
hardly worth a dollar, to the most extensive tavern or tea-house crowded with customers. 
For a few cash, a Chinese can dine upon rice, fish, vegetables and tea, his table in the 
street or on the ground, in a house or on a deck. Large warehouses for storing goods, 
granaries and temples are common in Shanghai, but neither these nor the public build¬ 
ings are either striking in themselves or peculiar to this city alone. The contrast 
between the narrow, noisome, and reeking parts of the native city, and the clean, spacious. 


Tientsin , 


3 1 5 


well-shaded and well-paved streets and large houses of the foreign residents, is like that 
seen in India. 

One of the greatest ports of China is Tientsin. This is a large and important city 
and river port, situated eighty miles south-east of Pekin. It is one of the most important 
places in the empire, and is the key of the capital, although Lung Chan is really its 



THE GREAT WALL IN CHINA. 

port. Only the central part of Tientsin is well built with peculiar and regular houses, 
while the larger portion of the city consists of narrow, unpaved streets with houses of mud 
or dried bricks. But it is a bustling place, where junks crawd the shores in great numbers 
that can not be counted, and contains a very important part of the half million or more 
of people which make up the population. 
























3 l6 


Cities of the World. 

The city of Siangan is the capital of north-west China, and is said to stand next to 
Pekin in size, population, and importance. It is of great historical interest, and during 
many centuries of activity has upheld its ancient name of the city of Continuous Peace. 
The population—somewhere near a million—occupies the entire space within its imposing 
walls ; a mingled company of Tibetans, Mongols and Tartars, many of whom are Mos¬ 
lems. The city has been taken and retaken, rebuilt and destroyed, since its establish¬ 
ment in the twelfth century B. C. by the martial king, but it has always held some con¬ 
trol of the trade between the central and western provinces and Western Asia. Some 
miles to the north-west lies the temple of Ta-fu-sz’, containing the largest statue of 
Buddha in China. It stands in a cave hewn out of the sandstone rock ; its height is 
fifty-six feet, the figure and gaiments richly covered with color and gilt. 

The “ Happy City ” of the Chi¬ 
nese, which we call Fu-Chow-Foo, or 
Fuchan, is one of the most beauti¬ 
fully situated in the empire. It lies 
in a plain, surrounded by hills form¬ 
ing a natural and most magnificent 
amphitheater, as fertile as it is beau¬ 
tiful. Suburbs extend from the walls 
three miles to the banks of the Min, 
and stretch along on both sides of 
the stream. They are connected with 
each other, and a small islet in the 
river, by a stone bridge built in the 
eleventh century. The scenery is 
bold, with pines covering the sur¬ 
rounding hills not occupied by graves 
or by cultivated fields. Some of 
the hills north of the city are three thousand feet high. Opposite Fuchan the land is 
lower and the suburb is built upon an island formed by the division of the main channel 
seven miles above the city ; the branches reunite at Pagoda Island. The river is crowd¬ 
ed with floating dwellings, ferry-boats, and trading craft. The river is always a lively 
place, and is gay and picturesque, too, from the flowers growing in pots on the boats, and 
worn by the boat-women in their hair. The city is divided into wards and neighbor¬ 
hoods, each of which is under its own police and head men, who are responsible each for 
their own districts. One of the best views of Fuchan is from a height on the south, 
whence the square battlements of the wall are seen extending in a winding and irregular 
circuit for more than eight miles, and inclosing most of the buildings, except on the south. 
On the south-east, a steep hill partly built up with dwellings, and another on the 



MUTUAL 


Fuchan. 


3 : 7 

extreme north is surmounted by a watch-tower. Two pagodas within, and fantastic 
looking watch-towers upon the walls, look-out houses standing upon the roofs of 
buildings, or over the street, large, regular built granaries, and a vast number of flag- 
staffs in pairs indicating temples and offices, rise out of the level of the ordinary roofs 
partly hidden by large trees. Everywhere the city is equally well-built, with few vacant 
spaces, the margin of West Lake lined with temples and other buildings ; a bridge 
crossing its expanse, and fishing nets and boats floating upon its bosom. 

About eight thousand Manchus—one of the great races of the empire, and perhaps 
the finest people in the entire population of Asia—occupy the eastern side of the city. 
The hill of the Nine Genii on the southern part of town is a very attractive place, to 
citizens and to strangers. The city wall runs over it, and on its sides little houses are 
built upon rocky steps ; numerous inscrip¬ 
tions are carved on the face of the rocks. 

Near the eastern entrance, called the Bath 
Gate, is a small suburb, where Chinese and 
Manchus live together, and take care of 
many wells filled from springs near by ; 
people come here in large crowds to wash 
and amuse themselves. The citizens of 
Fuchan are a well educated, reserved, 
proud, rather turbulent people, unlike the 
polite, affable natives further north. 

Many culprits wearing the cangue—or 
Chinese form of punishment—are to be 
seen in the streets, and in passing you do 
not hear the sounds of merriment com¬ 
mon to other towns. There is also a gen- Chinese woman s shoe and model of a 
eral lack of courtesy between acquaint- foot. 

ances meeting in the highway, which is very unusual in China. The beggars 
that crowd the thoroughfares seem to touch the feelings of the people as little 
as the other and more serious abominations, allowed in the streets of almost every 
quarter. The streets of Fuchan, after the fashion of Chinese towns, are usually thronged 
with craftsmen, hucksters and shopmen, who seem to feel that the more they get in their 
customers way, the more likely they are to sell them something. The shops are thrown 
open so widely and show such a variety of articles, or expose the workmen so plainly, 
that the whole street seems to be rather the stalls of a market, or the aisle in a manu¬ 
factory, than the town-thoroughfare. There are few important manufactures here ; most 
of the business, as well as the supplies of the city, coming from the interior by way of the 
River Min. One half of the men of Fuchan are said to be opium-smokers ; and mill- 











318 Cities of the World\ 

ions of dollars are spent here every year for the drug. The population of the city and 

suburbs is reckoned at over 
a million souls, including 
the boat people ; it is one of 
the chief cities in the Em¬ 
pire in size, trade and influ¬ 
ence. The island in the 
river is settled by trading 
people, most of whom are 
sailors and boatmen. The 
country women, who bring 
vegetables and poultry to 
market, are robust and 
strong, a great contrast to 
the sickly-looking, little¬ 
footed ladies of the city. 
Fishing-boats are numerous in the river and many of them are furnished with cormorants. 





CORMORANT FISHING 
































































JAPAN. 

T HE island empire lying off the north-eastern coast of Asia is known to us as Japan, 
to the people themselves as “Great Nippon.” It is composed mainly of four 
good sized islands lying like a crescent, separated from the continent by the Japan Sea. 
Yezo, the northern island, is thinly inhabited, but the main island, Hondo, or Niphon, 
as it is known to us, and the other more southerly ones are well peopled. Besides the 
four main islands there are about four thousand others of all sizes, some large, with 



STREET IN YOKOHAMA. 

several towns, others mere specks of rocks. The entire area of the empire is about 
equal to that of the New England and Middle States ; the population is larger than 
that of Great Britain, and somewhat under that of France. This sea-girt empire has 
altogether between sixty and seventy cities, fifty of which are somewhat smaller than 
Portland, Maine, six have about as many people as Troy, New York, and another six 
are rated as nearly twice the size of Richmond, Virginia. Besides these there are 
three great cities, the chief of which is Tokio, once called Yedo. The Gulf of Yedo 
is a large and sheltered arm of the sea, in about the center of the eastern coast of 
Niphon, and at its head lies the city ; but the bay is shallow here, so large vessels stop 





















320 


Cities of the World. 


eighteen miles below at Yokohama, on the western shore of the Gulf. This is a new 
and American-looking town, which was only a fishing village when Commodore Perry 
anchored his fleet in the Mississippi Bay, not far away, while he negotiated with the 
government for the treaty with the United States, which undid the gates of the 



TATTOOED JAPANESE. 


WOMAN AND CHILD. 


forbidding empire to all the civilized nations of the world. A railroad runs directly 
from Yokohama to the capital, and takes you there in an hour. After London, Tokio 
is the most extensive city in the world ; but in population is about the size of Berlin 
and Vienna. It stands on a great plain which is one of the most fertile in Japan. 
The surrounding country, which is tilled with great care and skill, yields handsomely ; 











































































































































































































































































































































322 Cities of the World. 

it is abundantly watered by several large streams, while smaller ones intersect it in every 
direction, forming many rich and lovely valleys. 

The Great River, or Ogawa, divides the city into an eastern and western portion, 
which is united by half a dozen broad bridges. The western part is the largest and 
most important. After the same fashion as the Chinese cities Tokio is built in three 
sections, one within another. The innermost is the citadel, in which the palace of the 
Shoguns used to stand. Many times the palace was burned and rebuilt, but since it was 
destroyed in 1872 the great beautiful parks surrounding the spot have been kept in 
good order, but so far the palace itself is wanting ; but the wall inclosing the grounds 
still preserve this—the highest point in the capital—as a citadel. There are great 
stones in this rampart which were brought two hundred miles. Outside the citadel, is 
O-shiro , and engirdling it, is Soto-shiro , a part of the city made up of palaces, 
temples, universities, and schools for arts and trades, for Tokio has many excellent 
institutions for young men who would study law, engineering, medicine, and chemistry. 

Since Japan has opened her doors to the world there has been in every part of 
the country a great deal of interest taken in education ; many more schools have 
been opened ; scientific, industrial and other institutes, such as there are in Europe 
and in our own country, have been founded. The center for all this educational interest 
is at the capital ; the Imperial University has more than a hundred foreign professors. 
There is a fine naval college here, too, and the main body of the new imperial army 
is located and drilled here. The famous Bridge of Japan is in this part of the city. 
It is considered the center of the empire and all geographical distances are reckoned 
from this. Through the eastern part of Soto-shiro runs the great highroad of Japan, 
the Tokaido. Beyond, surrounding both the others, lies the outer section, the general 
city. Here is the temple of K’wanon, which is the most venerated of any in Japan, and 
that of Kanda-Niyojin, the guardian deity of the city. The old temple of Confucius is 
now a public library, stocked with Japanese, Chinese, and European books. The 
foreign quarter is part of the old district of Yedo, called Filled-up Land ; it faces 
the river and is surrounded on all sides by canals. It is well paved, cleaned and 
lighted ; but all Tokio is modernized now, and as many parts of the city are more 
favorable for dwellings than this, the foreign officials at the consulates, missionaries, 
and a few merchants are the only persons who live here. 

The streets in this quarter and leading from it are lined with open houses and 
shops, showing the doings of the family as freely as those of the workman. You can 
see the mechanics at work as you pass along. They are all down on the floor. There 
is a blacksmith pulling the bellows with his foot while he is holding and hammering 
with both hands. He keeps his dinner pot boiling with what flame there is to spare 
from keeping his many irons hot. Here are shops full of ivory carvings, some of them 
most delicate and beautiful works of art, and nearly all put to one use, the nitsukis . 


Tokio . 


323 

This is a large button, made with two holes through which runs a silken cord that holds 
a gentleman’s pipe and pouch in his girdle ; for no Japanese is without his smoking 
apparatus, made up of a tiny-bowled, brass-tipped bamboo pipe in its case, one bag 
containing flint, tinder and steel, and another to hold his tobacco. The branches of 
trade keep together in different streets. In one there are quantities of bureaus and 
cabinets ; in another, folding screens, or dyer’s shops. One street has a forest of 
bamboo poles for sale. The main street of the capital is the Tori; it is much wider 
than Broadway in New York, 
here are gayer, the goods 
are richer, and the crowds 
are more dense than any 
where else in the city; but, 
according to our ideas, there 
is not one really handsome 
looking store the whole 
length of it. The crowds 
are mainly of copper colored 
natives, but they have a fa¬ 
miliar appearance, for most 
of the men dress in the Eu¬ 
ropean fashion, showing 
more clothes and less skin 
than used to be the native 
custom. Thousands wear 
hats, coats, trowsers, and 
carry watches. Carriages are 
numerous, but in and out 
among the throng the jin- 
riki-shas are almost as plentiful as ever. These “ man-power carriages ” are cur¬ 
ious little cabs on two wheels, like an overgrown baby carriage with shafts, and 
drawn by Japanese men of the lower classes. When you wish to go very 
fast you hire two men, one to push ; and sometimes three are employed and run tandem 
with the jaunty little car. Sometimes these sha are made in the shape of a boat, and 
many of them very finely ornamented. There is an air of bustle and energy here and 
all through the city now that was wanting a while ago. The modernization of the 
Mikado’s capital has banished beggars, guard-houses, and the sentinels that used to 
keep watch at the black gates in the high fences which inclosed the foreign quarter. 
Foreigners are safe nowadays, and a uniformed police are ready to preserve the peace 
among all alike. One of the peculiar kind of Japanese buildings is the yashiki , which 


which measures about seventy-five feet across. The shops 



TRAVELING IN TOKIO. 












324 Cities of the World\ 

means the “spread out house,” and is a sort of feudal castle. It is usually in the form 
of a hollow square, inclosing from ten thousand to one hundred and sixty thousand 
square feet of ground. On the street front it looks like a continuous house on stone 
foundations, with rows of wooden barred or grated windows. The four sides of the 
square within are made up of four rows of houses, usually extending in four unbroken 
lines. In the center are the mansions of the daitnio , or military prince, and his 


THE STREET BALLAD-SINGER. 

ministers. The retainers of lower rank occupy the long houses which form the sides of 
the square. The remainder of the space within the inclosure is used for pleasure and 
produce gardens, recreation grounds, tarket walks, and fire-proof houses. All the 
largest yashikis have three divisions, the superior, middle, and inferior. In the third the 
servants and least important followers live ; in the second the ordinary clansmen are 
housed, while the lord of the clan dwells in the central building. This is approached 




























Tokio . 


3 2 5 


from the great gate by a wide stone path and grand wood portico. Long, wide 
corridors, laid with soft mats, lead to the master’s chamber. The wood work in 
natural colors is interspersed with black, lacquer-like enamel. The walls are gorgeously 
papered with gold, silver, or the fanciful designs and brilliant colors peculiar to 
Japanese art. The sliding doors or partitions of which three sides of a Japanese room 
is composed are sometimes decorated in beautiful painting of the bamboo and lily, the 
stork, tortoise, marvelous fans and other favorite studies. These buildings were the 



DOMESTIC ALTAR OF THE GODS OF HAPPINESS. 

glory of old Yedo, but the almost nightly fires have swept many of them away, and they 
are not rebuilt, for under the new government they are not needed ; feudalism forms no 
part of the present empire of Japan. The chief importance of Tokio is as the 
national capital; but there is considerable export trade passing through it to Yokohama. 
The whole business part is studded with clay fire-proof store houses, not only for mer¬ 
chandise, but to receive alL the valuables in the neighborhood as soon as a fire breaks 
out. As soon as the building is filled the massive iron doors and shutters of these 
dova are cemented air-tight and preserve their contents while all the light buildings 
round about are swiftly swept away. For many years the houses burned down have 





















































326 Cities of the World. 

always been replaced by the same style of light, inflammable structures ; but solid brick 
and stone houses are now taking their places. 

Ozaka, the second city of Japan, is but about one-quarter the size of Tokio, having 
a population of about three hundred thousand. It is situated on a large river some 
twenty miles from the south-east coast of the main land, in the most central and 
thickly settled part of the empire. It is a very important trading place, chiefly because 
it is in the midst of the great tea districts. It is clean and regularly built, with hundreds of 
wooden iron bridges spanning streams that thread their way through the city in every 



A DOMESTIC SCENE. 


direction. These waterways are some of the busiest thoroughfares of Ozaka; house¬ 
boats fitted up comfortably for passengers, and all sort of freight-craft, glide back and 
forth past the wooden houses, in much the same numbers and interesting variety as 
others of a far different build float over the palace lined water streets of Venice. This, like 
all places in Japan, has many temples to Buddha and other deities, and two Christian 
churches. Some of the public buildings are imposing structures, especially the municipal 
hall, and the extensive Roman-looking mint, where a large part of the coin in Japan is 
cut. It is a thrifty and a gay city with plenty of theaters, singing-girls and other popu¬ 
lar amusements. The ladies here are even more tasteful and fashionable than those in 
the capital; perhaps it is because they are more beautiful. The ancient capital and the 


























Kioto . 


327 


residence of the emperor, when he was only the mikado, or spiritual ruler, was at Kioto, 
which is also called Miako, and Sai-Kiyo. It is now the third of the great cities of the 
country, with about the same number of people as Ozaka. This was the chief center of 
the national religion, at the time of the double rule in Japan, and has still some vast 
and splendid temples. The houses are mostly of the better class, and the streets that 
cross each other at right angles, are broad and clean. When the great revolution broke 
out in 1868, and the shogun, or temporal ruler, was deposed, the mikado was given com¬ 
plete authority over the affairs of the empire. He then removed his court to Yedo, 
which became Tokio. This took away many of the wealthy people of the city ; but it 
is still the seat of a large interior trade and is a very flourishing place, famous for the 
manufacture and dyeing of silks. It is also the center of Japanese literature and art. 



JAPANESE CANDLESTICKS AND CENSERS. 




SOUTH AMERICA. 


T HE largest and most important city in South America is Rio de Janeiro, the 
capital of the Brazilian empire. It stands on a magnificent harbor just above 
the tropic of Capricorn on the eastern coast of the continent. It is land-locked, entered 
on the south by a mile-wide passage, and often described as the most beautiful, secure 
and spacious in the world. It extends seventeen miles inland, and in the widest place 
measures twelve miles across ; although its entrance is guarded by mountains and many 
islands are scattered through the bay, its waters are so free from danger that pilots are 
not needed to take ships in and out. There are fifty square miles of anchorage within 
the harbor, not a tenth part of which is now used. The bay is girded with mountains 
and lofty hills of every variety of picturesque and fantastic outline, and across the blue 
waters lies the city, old and new, along the western shore ; the white-walled and vermil¬ 
ion-roofed houses climbing the seven green and mound-like hills, or clustering in the 
valleys between. Convents or churches stand on the summits of some of the hills within 
the city limits, and streets, sometimes only scatteringly lined with houses, climb part of 
the way up others. The city is a great sprawling, shapeless place ; and while the main 
business part near the bay is compactly laid out in regular squares of narrow paved and 
flagged streets of granite houses, roofed with tile, beyond that there are spider-like 
reaches extending up and down the shore and backward to the mountains. One of the 
most beautiful of these outer districts is Botafogo, with its well built aristocratic houses 
and its crowning glory of stately tropical gardens, with avenues of royal palms, gorgeous 
flowering shrubs and dense, dark foliaged trees. Beyond this is the Botanic Garden, a 
most beautiful spot laid out in shady walks, groves of tropical trees, green lawns and a 
noble avenue of royal palms, a hundred feet high. During the fine afternoons hundreds 
of people come here from the city for a few hours’ pleasure, part of which is the ride 'out 
in the open horse-cars—mule cars more properly speaking. The route between the 
Gardens and the center of the city is through a succession of lovely scenes, for the 
environs of Rio abound in picturesque valleys and hillsides, pierced by beautiful roads 
and by-paths. The most fashionable street in the Brazilian capital is the Rua do Ouvi- 
dor. It is only a narrow alley too ; but here are the best retail shops with brilliant and 
tastefully arranged windows, coffee rooms opening on the street, and some poor pic¬ 
ture galleries. It is always lively and pleasant here, and in the evening it is extremely gay 
with crowds of handsomely dressed Brazilian gentry. During carnival-time and when 
festivals are held, it is thronged with people, filling sidewalks and roadway alike, while 


Rio de Janeiro . 


329 


arches of gas jets over head, light it up like a great hall or pavilion. The new town is 
west of the old, and separated from it by the Campo de Santa Anna , an immense square 
or park, on different parts of which stands an extensive barrack, the town hall, the 
national museum, the palace of the senate, the foreign office, a large opera house, and 
other buildings for public or government uses. The population of Rio is about three 
hundred thousand, that is, somewhat larger than Cincinnati, Ohio. There is a compara¬ 
tively small number of really good people in the capital. The largest class have many 
vices and most of them are too poor to be idle and too proud to work ; they feel that 
there is a broad gulf between them and the working folks, as there is between the free 
laborers and the fourth and lowest class, the slaves. One of the main business streets is 
the Rua Primeiro de Marco , running parallel to the water front, about the only wide and 
pleasant thoroughfare in the old part of the town, where stand row after row of tall 
plain warehouses and offices, among the buildings of the new post-office, the Agricul¬ 
tural Hall and a few notable churches. It is thronged with a crowd of people taking life 
so leisurely, that a bustling, newly landed New Yorker could scarcely believe it to be the 
center of wholesale trade, filled with the principal banking and commission houses of the 
largest city in South America. The commission and importing business in the great 
counting houses here is largely carried on by English and German firms ; there are some 
Brazilian and a few French and American houses. 

Only a few carts and carriages are seen ; most of the lighter carting is done on the 
heads of negro porters, while the heavy burdens, like bags of coffee or grain, are carried 
through the streets on platform cars drawn on tracks by mules. At the street corners 
there are groups of laborers gathered round a kiosque —a gayly-painted pagoda-like build¬ 
ing—wherein they get their coffee and lunch, and find plenty of tables to sit at and talk. 
Lottery tickets are sold in the kiosques too, and the chances of success with the tickets 
displayed make up a large part of the conversation. This is the great curse of Brazil. 
By the water side, not far from the banking streets, is the large, square building of the 
market. In one small square on the land side there is a gathering of noisy fruit women, 
and on the bay side, where immense docks or basins are walled in, nearly all the market- 
boatmen of Rio unload their cargoes of fish and vegetables; a strange, dense, and busy 
crowd they make in the mornings, these black-bearded Portuguese mulattoes, on the 
wharves and in their broad, heavy flat-bottomed boats. The main part of the market is 
built much like those of New York, with stalls and passages. Besides these there is a 
court, with hucksters walking through, and stalls on either side, and stands covered with 
fish or tropical fruits and vegetables in the middle, attended by turbaned negro women, 
sitting under huge white umbrellas. The market is the center of the huckster life of Rio, 
which spreads through all its streets, and forms a marked characteristic of the city. Be¬ 
sides the market men there are traveling cloth merchants, rapping their jointed yard¬ 
sticks, candy-boys, newsboys, cake-women, tinkers, who beat on one of their pans with 


330 


Cities of the World ’ 


an iron rod as they pass along, and followers of almost every calling, for the Brazilian 
women do not like to go out shopping or marketing. The great warehouses and docks 
lie in the northern part of the city, where the streets are narrow and not always over¬ 
clean. Here during the sickly season the yellow fever rages cruelly. It begins gener¬ 
ally with the boatmen in January, and, little by little, spreads over the whole city as the 
warm and oppressive weather of March and April comes on. But from June or July 
until January Brazil is usually quite free from the scourge ; and when the draining and 
proper cleaning are enforced all the danger may be done away with. The old buildings, 
some of which have stood for two centuries, in these narrow, dirty streets, make them 
very interesting. The Portuguese colonists built solidly of stone and cement, and so 
their tile roofs, and the stout walls, covered with black mold now instead of whitewash, 
are as good as ever. Somber and venerable, they look down nowadays on horse-cars and 
crowds of people bearing no trace in dress or in manners of the old colonial days ; but 
even they are adapted to nineteenth century uses, for the ground floors of some of the 
most stately of them make very good coffee-packing establishments. Further on there 
are the new Pedro Segundo docks, where all except very heavy draught ships take in 
cargo from the wharfs. Like nearly all the public works in Brazil, these are handsomely 
ornamented, and are very popular with shippers. The trade and commerce of Rio are 
great now, and are increasing year by year. The chief export is coffee ; after that come 
gold, diamonds, tobacco, hides, cotton, timber and other things far exceeding the value 
of imports, which are mainly silk, linen, cotton, and woolen goods. European steam¬ 
ships arrive and leave almost daily, while the commerce with other foreign and do¬ 
mestic ports is also extensive. In all the many squares of the modern part of the 
capital there are fine fountains of pure water, brought by a splendid aqueduct from 
the springs on and around Mount Corcovado. For two or three miles, where this 
aqueduct runs along the mountain side, the government has built a carriage-road^ 
which is shady, quiet, and beautiful, a favorite strolling place. Here and there 
are glimpses of the bay and the city below. The peak of Corcovado is two points with 
a bridge between them and low parapet walls from which there is a view worth all the 
work of climbing up. The city and bay lie on one side of the forest-covered base of the 
mountain ; on the other, the Botanic Garden, with the picturesque Rodrigo de Freitas 
lake before it ; in front is the pretty suburb of Botafogo, built along the shores of one of 
the side bays opening into the harbor, and beyond is the towering cone of Sugarloaf, its 
twelve hundred feet of rock standing like a sentinel at the mouth of the bay, a view that 
the most unenthusiastic travelers have declared to have but two rivals in the world, 
Constantinople and San Francisco. 

According to size, the second capital in South America is Buenos Ayres, of the 
Argentine Republic. It stands on La Plata river, which even here, a hundred and fifty 
miles from the sea, is thirty-six miles across. The city is divided by granite paved 


Lima . 


33i 


streets into great blocks, about a hundred and fifty yards square. Horse-car lines run 
in every direction. The principal buildings are the cathedral and churches belonging to 
it, some Protestant churches, benevolent institutions, a military college and university. 
The importance of Buenos Ayres comes mainly from a very extensive inland trade 
especially with Chili. It is unfortunately situated, with a harbor exposed to bad tides 
and winds, and in a country wanting timber and stones^ Its largest industries are cigar 
making, carpet weaving, and the manufacture of furniture and boots and shoes. The 
exports and imports are much the same as those of Rio ; it has also about the same 
number of people as the Brazilian capital, fully one-third of them being Europeans, 
principally Spanish, Italian, French, and British. 

The Chilian capital is Santiago, a squarely laid out city with about a hundred and 
seventy-five thousand people. The city stands on a broad plain at the western base of 
the Andes, eighteen hundred feet above the sea. Its climate is delightful, and its sur¬ 
roundings beautiful and productive. Toward the mountains the scenery is most magnifi¬ 
cent, and round about are broad acres covered with growing vines, figs and melons. 
The houses, until recently, were always built low around a court or garden, in the best 
way possible to protect the inhabitants from the constantly recurring earthquakes ; but 
some of the newer buildings are costly edifices, two, three, and four stories high, with 
beautiful fa5ades overlooking the streets. Among the handsomest buildings are the 
mint ; part of this is one of the President’s palaces, while other apartments are devoted 
to public offices. The Cathedral stands on one side of the Great Square, and at some 
distance away are the university, library and museum, and several very fine schools. 
The life of the capital is best seen on the Alameda, a promenade shaded with poplars, 
and cooled by two streams of running water. Santiago is the export market for the 
mineral wealth of Chili, and receives in exchange for its gold, silver and lead, manufac¬ 
tured goods, wines and spirits for the most part. Its chief' trade is with Valparaiso, 
which is ninety miles away by the way of the Valparaiso aqd Santiago railway. The 
handsomest city of South America is Lima, capital of the Republic of Peru. One of 
the noblest thoroughfares on the continent is the Alameda, running from the capital to 
its port, Callao, which is on the Pacific coast, six miles away. At a distance, the spires 
and domes glitter in the sun, and the Moorish looking architecture is very striking and 
attractive. Most all the public buildings are magnificent; the dwellings and other 
houses are low and irregular, but give variety to the long regular streets. The principal 
business locality is the Plaza Mayor , or great square. It has a fine fountain in the 
center and is overlooked by the President’s palace, the Cathedral, the Archbishop’s 
palace, and, on the south, the old palace of Pizarro stands at right angles with the Town 
Hall. On one of the alamedas, or avenues, there is an immense amphitheater for bull 
fighting ; for Lima was founded by the Spaniards, and has many of their national traits. 
The city is shaped like a triangle, with its longest side extending along the bank of the 


332 


Cities of the World. 


river Rimac. Every morning the city streets are flooded with a stream of water, which 
is turned on to carry away what has collected the day before. Besides this cleans¬ 
ing there are quantities of buzzards that finish the scavenger work of the Peruvian 
capital, and keep it healthful and pleasant. Many of the monasteries and convents, 
which once were very numerous, have been suppressed ; but the convent of San 
Francisco is still actively devoted to the church. The University of Lima, which is 
in a rather neglected condition now, was the first great educational institution in the new 
world ; it has a valuable library, and is still attended by Peruvian and other South 
American students. The trade of the city is exporting and importing for the coast 
people, with some interior trade. The business of the capital is in a most unsettled 
condition now from the recent troubles that have shaken the whole state to its founda¬ 
tions. 


CANADA. 


A LMOST all the country of America north of the United States, is the Dominion oi 
Canada, belonging to Great Britain. This is a little less in size than our own posses¬ 
sions, but contains about one-twelfth as many people. The largest city is Montreal on an 
island in the St. Lawrence River at the mouth of the Ottawa. It has about a hundred 
and fifty thousand people, or about as many as Louisville, Kentucky. It is finely situated, 
with its stately architecture surrounded by the gleaming river, and standing out against 



MONTREAL. 

the green of maples and elms on the Royal Mount, with the Victoria Tubular Bridge 
spanning the great distance to the further bank. Crowds of shipping lie along the heavily- 
built stone wharves. Steamers nearly six thousand tons in burden are there, and fleets of 
three masted sailing vessels. The most prominent buildings on shore are the Catholic 
Cathedral, with its two tall square towers, and a great market and customs-buildings—a 
minor Somerset House to Londoners. The Cathedral is the finest church on the 







334 


Cities of the World. 


American continent. It is built in the Gothic style with six towers, the highest three being 
on the main front. It comprises seven chapels and nine aisles, and is large enough to hold 
between six and seven thousand people. There are also several other Roman Catholic 
churches belonging to the order of St. Sulpice. Montreal was founded chiefly by mem¬ 
bers of this order, who still hold possession of the island. Adjoining the Cathedral is 
the seminary of St. Sulpice, and several of the largest convents in the world are seen in 



SECTION OF THE VICTORIA BRIDGE. 


various parts of the city. The Catholic church has long owned a great deal of the 
property here, which has increased in value so vastly that through it the church has 
become enormously wealthy. The new Church of England Cathedral and the Scotch 
church of St. Andrew are also fine structures, but comparatively small. As almost all 
the buildings are of gray limestone the streets have a substantial and stately appearance, 
which, combined with the green of the trees, make the city very attractive. Near the 
waterside the thoroughfares are filled with busy crowds of active, energetic Canadians* 



































Montreal ’ 


335 



continually moving in one direction or another. Almost all the business seems to be 
transacted in this quarter. Here lie vessels from almost every great foreign port, from 
the United States and South America. Here negotiations are made and trade carried on 
extending to the large Canadian lumber districts, to the produce and manufacturing 
centers of the whole Dominion, and many places in the United States. The city is 
admirably situated as to rivers, canals and railways, and is fast becoming of great commer¬ 
cial importance. From the beginning of December to about the middle of April the 


CANADIAN AMUSEMENTS. 

harbor is closed by ice ; and during that time ocean steamers put in at Portland, Maine, 
and goods are shipped from there to Montreal by the Grand Trunk railway. In the 
other quarters the avenues are planted with trees ; pleasure grounds, and places of 
entertainment are seen ; and the buildings and surrounding grounds are sometimes 
handsomely adorned. The McGill University is one of the chief seats of learning in 
the country. The Museum has a collection of implements, weapons and carved pipes 
of the old North American Indians, and specimens of all that is remarkable in the 
geology of Canada. 

The great pleasure season of the year is in winter. Then every thing out of doors is 


336 


Cities of the World. 


covered with snow ; great tobogganing hills are setup forecasting. Sledges, snow shoes, 
and skates are brought out. The entire city puts on its holiday appearance, and thou¬ 
sands of strangers come to enjoy the sports, which reach their height with the opening 
of the Carnival. Then the great ice palace is built and all the members of the snow 
shoe clubs, clad in colored blanket coats, blue “ Turque ” caps, and moccasins, and 
other societies of the province are mustered in the capital. The stores put out their 
gayest decorations and show their richest stock ; every spare room, from those of the 
great hotels to the modest little private house, is rented, while nearly all kinds of 
business foreign to the Carnival is partially or wholly suspended. In and around the 
palace the most picturesque and charming f£tes are held every evening ; processions of 
torch-bearing snow shoers and militia are held ; public balls and private parties are given, 
excursions are made up, and for about one week every kind of winter enjoyment 
imaginable,—sleighing, tobogganing down steep hills at a take-your-breath-away rate of 
speed, curling, skating, and countless others—are kept up with the greatest enthusiasm. 
Then the wonderful, fairy-like palace, with towers, battlements and glittering walls, 
inclosing immense corridors and stately halls built of ice blocks and illuminated with a thou¬ 
sand lights of various colors, is stormed and captured, and after one more ball, the most 
brilliant of the season, the Carnival is over. Toronto, the second city of the Dominion, 
is the capital of Ontario. This is the large province which lies across the lakes from 
New York, and into which we go when visiting Niagara Falls. Toronto is nearly half 
the size of Montreal in population ; it lies low and flat on a spacious inlet of Lake 
Ontario called Toronto Bay. The largest vessels on the lakes can come in here past 
the fort, and, some of them, up to the quays. In summer it is a gay and beautiful sight 
when the fleet of the yacht club is out, or the cutters and schooners of Toronto and 
Hamilton have the regattas, which bring out hundreds of people to watch the contests. 
There are many fine buildings and broad handsome streets in Toronto ; it is well paved 
and lighted and carefully kept; most of the city is built up with brick ; but there are 
churches and colleges, public halls and the stately. Law Courts in stone. The highest 
quarter is the Queen’s Park, on the west, reached from King street—the greatest and 
longest thoroughfare of the city—by a double avenue. The Park is prettily wooded, and 
contains some handsome private dwellings, the observatory, and the university. Toronto 
is the fountain-head of the Canadian school system, and has, beside Trinity, Knox and 
Upper Colleges, many very fine common and normal schools. The University Park, with 
its beautiful monument to the volunteers who fell at Ridgeway and the Horticultural 
garden, is a favorite resort for all the people of the city. Miss Rye’s Home for friendless 
little street children is one of the most noted places, as it is one of the grandest benevo¬ 
lent works near Toronto. 

Every year in September the great provincial fair of Ontario is held here. This is 
the best time to see the people and what they do. Every thing belonging to education and 


Quebec . 



schools has one of the chief places, and there are countless exhibits of beautiful woods 
and wood-work, of books, magazines and papers, of all kinds of household articles, from 
fine soap to expensive furniture, and nearly every other product and manufacture of the 
city and the province. 

The chief fortress of Canada, and the only walled city in the American 
continent is Quebec. Although it has only about sixty thousand people, as many 
as New Haven, Connecticut, it is an important city, with railroad connection 
with all the cities in the United States. After Montreal, it has the largest com¬ 


merce in the Dominion, the principal trade being in lumber, grain and ships. There are 
large ship-yards where vessels, noted for beauty and strength, are made ; and immense 
rafts of logs are always moored along the shore below the city. The harbor is fine, 
and so deep that the largest vessels can come close up to the wharves. Quebec is divided 
into two parts ; the lower town is on a plain along the shore, and has many narrow 
crooked streets lined with quaint old buildings. The upper town is on a steep promon¬ 
tory about three hundred feet from the river. It is surrounded by a wall, and there is a 
great citadel overlooking the city, which, with the other forts, has given Quebec the name 
of the Gibraltar of America. There are fine buildings and public institutions here; and 
the people, two-thirds of whom are French Canadians, enjoy one of the finest promenades 
in the world, and live in full view of some of the most picturesque scenery in the Queen’s 
possessions. The Canadian capital is Ottawa, a minor city, on the banks of a broad 
tributary to the St. Lawrence. The Houses of Parliament, with their towers and high 


QUEBEC. 






















338 


Cities of the World. 


pitched roofs, are built on a cliff jutting into the stream. At the western side of the city 
the Ottawa rushes over a precipice and forms the famous Chaudiere Falls, and at the 
north-east the Rideau falls into the Ottawa in two other cataracts. A suspension bridge 
hangs over Chaudiere Falls, connecting Upper and Lower Canada. The principal trade 



STREET IN QUEBEC. 


of the capital is in immense quantities of sawed lumber, and some manufactures from 
other mills, also run by the immense water power furnished by the rivers. Rideau Hall, 
the house of the Governor-General, is at New Edinburgh, near the city. Ottawa is about 
the size of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, its population being thirty thousand. 





















MEXICO. 


■i 




T HE capital of Mexico, our country’s nearest neighbor and sister republic, is 
Mexico. It is beautifully situated in the center of a great table-land about mid¬ 
way between the Gulf and the Pacific. The plateau is surrounded by snow-capped 
mountains, and studded with five lakes, near the largest of which lies the city. The 
heart of the capital is the Gra 7 id Plaza , or Great Square, which measures about a thou¬ 
sand feet each way. It is the finest open place in America, and one of the finest in the 
world, with a pretty tropical garden in the center and noble buildings ranging in lofty 
stories on all sides. On the south is the President’s palace, an extensive pile that is 
palace, garrisoned castle, and hall of state. Here are kept the archives of the govern¬ 
ment and supplies in case of siege. The state apartments take up an immense wing, the 
Hall of Embassadors alone being large enough for a palace; it is a picture gallery too, 
lined with portraits of Mexican grandees, among which Bolivar and Washington are 
given a place as successful American revolutionists. Across the long stretch of the 
Plaza, opposite the palace, is a long arcade, wide and shaded, and full of shops of every 
description. Here are silversmiths at work or selling their famous filigree; feather-work 
shops; toys of all kinds; earthen trinkets; hat stores full of broad sombreros and rebosas, 
the brown and blue mantles, such as you see over the head and neck of every working 
woman who passes by. Here are coffee-stands and book-stalls and all sorts of trade 
and traffic, opening off of the broad walks, filled with a Mexican crowd. 

On the left of the palace, there are plain, strong-looking lines of barracks, and on 
its right, stands the Moorish-looking cathedral. It stands on a large platform several 
feet higher than the pavement of the Plaza, a grand and imposing building, which was 
raised on the ruins of the great teocalli , the old Aztec temple to the god Mixitli. The 
circular calendar stone covered with Aztec hieroglyphics, representing the months of 
the year, is preserved in the corner of the building. The inside of the cathedral is 
grand but not gloomy. It is partitioned off for different classes of people. The altar is a 
gorgeous piece of marble sculpture and precious stones, and some of the carving, metal 
work in the screens, and other ornamentation, set with gems, is very beautiful. The 


340 


Cities of the World. 

open space in front of the cathedral is full of people selling their wares, especially Sabbath 
mornings. Lottery ticket sellers, usually old men and women, are more numerous than 
any other venders; and among them are match-boys, ice-cream sellers, picture venders, 
and scores of others offering bargains to the passers by, or the worshipers as they go 
toward or leave the church. 

The streets running northward from the Plaza are the chief thoroughfares of the city. 
Each block is known by a different name. The first is called the Street of the Silver- 





CITY OF MEXICO. 

smiths; now there are some few of the craft, once very numerous here, who have their 
forge and work their silver in plain view of the passers by. But jewelry and cigar shops 
and dry goods stores have crowded out the silver workers. Further along stands a church 
and some other of the old religious buildings, now converted into every-day use. The 
fifty-year old palace of Iturbide, too, is now a hotel, the stateliest private building in 
Mexico, it is said, with its fine carved front, facing the President’s dwelling. Further 
on is a porcelain-faced house of quaint Dutch tiles, while above and below it are the 















Mexico. 


341 


residences of the wealthy and aristocratic of the city. Beyond is the public park, 
the Alameda,—forty acres of winding paths, fenced off from plots of shrubs or flowers, 
with fountains encircled by stone seats. The eastern side of the Alameda is the street 
of San Cosme, the broadest and liveliest thoroughfare in Mexico. It has another interest, 
too, than the people. It is the road over which Cortez tried to escape on that night which 
has passed into history as the Trieste Noche, or saddest of nights. It passes by the 
aqueduct of San Cosme, that extends toward the city in solemn gray arches, moss-grown 
and majestic. Swiftly running horse cars, loaded donkeys, cavaliers, men and women 
promenading or bearing burdens make the thickest and the busiest throng in Mexico, 
beside this solemn old arcade. A mile or so out, in the vicinity of the English and 
American cemeteries, the aqueduct suddenly turns westward toward Chapultepec; not 
far from here is the favorite site fpr gentlemen’s villas, with most lovely surroundings. 
The country is full of parks, ponds, groves, pleasant walks, flower beds, rare trees and 
tropical plants. San Cosme also ends in the Plaza, in the heart of the city; but it 
contains one greater attaction than the busy square, in the Tivoli Gardens, which surpass 
many of the most celebrated pleasure grounds in Europe. Here in the midst of de¬ 
lightful scenery, the gentry breakfast between twelve o’clock and four. Tables are ar¬ 
ranged in the most charming and unlooked-for places: they are in quaint looking boxes 
high in the tree-tops, in sequestered arbors, in open plots; everywhere for variety or 
differing tastes. All that is good to eat or drink in the country is served here, and the 
music is delightful. One road from the Tivoli leads to the square where the burnings 
of the Inquisition took place. The Inquisition building is used for the custom-house 
now; a great fountain is in the center of the road, and a church stands across the way. 
Beside the beautiful Alameda, Mexico has remarkably long and handsome paseos , or 
raised paved roads, planted with double rows of trees, and extending far into the country 
from every quarter of the city. The water gardens, which were a celebrated attraction in 
ancient days, are not floating nowadays, although there are a few of them still kept in 
luxurious beauty in the midst of the swamps, which the modern Mexicans have allowed 
to spread around the lakes. The trade here is chiefly transit business, although there 
is a considerable quantity of manufactured goods imported, and some home manufact¬ 
ures shipped in exchange. Superior cigars are made in the capital, beside gold lace, 
hats, carriages, saddlery and some other things; these, with gold and silver and some 
of the valuable products of the plateau, are carried on mules, usually to Vera Cruz and 
other ports, for foreign shipment. 


THE UNITED STATES, 


^ | 'HE metropolis of the United States and the greatest city of the Americas is New 
York. All foreign commerce, all domestic trade,, all travelers from abroad or tourists 
at home, some of all that is good, bad, or indifferent, find their way sooner or later to 
the water-bound city of the Empire State. Every railroad on the continent is connected 



THE CITY HALL. 

with it; the main canals and natural water-ways tend toward it, while the great Atlantic 
itself reaches out a strong, safe arm to the very steps of the Custom House. It has been 
said that no country in the world can boast of such a harbor, where the turbulence of 
the sea is shut out by a bar that admits the largest vessels at high tide. Its circle of 



























NEW YORK HARBOR 






































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































344 


Cities of the World. 


hills encloses a basin large enough to shelter all the fleets of the world, without 
danger from shifting shoals, or strong treacherous currents; while from the Fire Island 
light or the first sight of land, the beacon lights and buoys are so numerous and distinct, 
that any accident other than one vessel colliding with another is almost unknown. The 
approach to the great city is beautiful as well as safe and commodious. The Highlands 
of Navesink, with their tall lighthouse towers, attract the visitor’s eye by day or night; 



BARGE OFFICE, BATTERY, NEW YORK CITY, 


above them the long point of Sandy Hook runs out to the north, with its lighthouse, 
a white monument by day, and a flashing light by night; opposite this is the Coney 
Island shore, leaving a broad entrance to the Lower Bay, with the quiet, shining waters 
of Raritan Bay opening upon it on the west. On a sunny day this sparkling bay on the 
left, and the long sandy stretch of Coney Island with its great pavilions and piers on the 








































New York. 


345 


right, make a very pleasant first impression. But the scene grows fairer as you cross 
the Lower Bay; now and then an island is passed, and above Raritan, the wooded hills 
of Staten Island curve out to meet the green bluffs of Long Island, forming the pretty 
strait called the Narrows. Just above the forts 
the shores retreat, and New York Bay comes full 
in view. The Staten Island heights are crowned 
with scattered villas and suburban villages; the 
green of the Long Island shore is soon broken 
by the lines of Brooklyn wharves and docks, 
which extend for miles along the whole length 
of the eastern shore of the Harbor, up the 
East River to Long Island City, several miles 
beyond. To the left the shore of Staten Island 
ends at an angle, and the broad Kill von Kull, 
connecting the Harbor with Newark Bay, beyond, 
lies between the island and a long factory-built 
and barge-lined peninsula of New Jersey. This 
runs out from Jersey City, whose southerly point 
is just opposite that of New York at the mouth 
of the Hudson River ; near the head of the 
Harbor there are several small islands, the most 
notable of these, although not the largest, being 
Bedloe’s, the site of Bartholdi’s colossal statue 
of Liberty Enlightening the World, the gift of 
the French to the American people. From Bed¬ 
loe’s Island the full harbor view of New York 
lies clear and distinct. On the blue waters ride 
ships from every large European port; sloops, 
schooners, and square rigged vessels from far 
and near; harbor barges, great excursion boats 
and Sound steamers with their pointed prows, 
double and triple tiers of decks, and immense 
side wheels; bulky, low ferry-boats, trim yachts 
with their snow-white sails and yellow masts; 
black hulled, black rigged government vessels; 
with puffing little tugs steaming about from 
one point to another, sometimes darting away like a messenger in hot haste, some¬ 
times laboriously dragging a trail of four or five heavily laden scows or train boats, or 
towing a disabled vessel into port. Amongst all these, especially as you near the shore. 



BARTHOLDI S STATUE. 


K 
































346 


Cities of the World 

there are countless row-boats to be seen, with brawny armed boatmen sending them 
over the swells or under the lee of a ship with perfect ease and indifference to any sort 
of danger. The rounding point that lies out between the Hudson and Jersey City on 
the west, and Brooklyn and the East River, spanned by the great suspension bridge, on 
the east, is Battery Park. To the east rise the green walls and red sheds of the Barge 
Office of the New York Custom House, to the west is the round, flat roof of Castle Gar¬ 
den, with the green tree-planted park, and the broad promenade above the river wall, 
between. From here, on the banks of both rivers extend wharves and docks, densely 
crowded with shipping; great covered piers filled with goods, which laborers of every 
nationality are constantly transferring to or from the vessels lying along the sides; and 
ferry-boat slips, where the big double-enders come in and go out all hours of the day 
and night, weighted to the water’s edge with people and vehicles. For thirteen miles 
along the city shore every foot of the Hudson River may be used as anchoring ground for 
vessels of the greatest tonnage; and the same is true, or nearly so, of nine and a quarter 
miles of the East River. So, including the capacity of the Harlem River in the upper 
part of the city, New York has a hundred and fifteen square miles of safe anchorage in 
almost any kind of weather. Another approach from the sea to the city is by way of 
Long Island Sound, out of which, with the irregular bays and rocky strait of Hell Gate 
for a connecting link and the Harlem River for a tributary, comes the East River. The 
Sound is wide and deep, a long and somewhat narrow sea sometimes touched by rough 
weather; it is separated from the ocean by the very considerable barrier of Long Island, 
dotted by lovely summer houses, fashionable watering places, and charming suburban 
cities. New York now includes the East River islands, Blackwell’s, Ward’s and Ran¬ 
dall’s, where the city prisons, work-houses and hospitals are situated; Governor’s, Bedloe’s 
and Ellis’s Islands in the Bay, occupied by the United States government; Manhattan 
Island, where the main part of the city is situated; and a portion of the mainland sepa¬ 
rated from the original New York by Harlem River, flowing into the Sound, and Spuyten 
Duyvil Creek, flowing into the Hudson. It is bounded on the north by the city of 
Yonkers, east by the Bronx and the East Rivers, west by the Hudson, and south by the 
Bay; its extreme length is sixteen miles, its greatest width is four and a half miles. 
The whole area is forty-one and a half square miles or twenty-six thousand acres, the 
home of one and one third million of people, a very large part of whom are crowded 
into the lower part of the island. The main thoroughfare of the city is Broadway; it 
begins in Bowling Green above the Battery Park, and makes a straight line till within a 
few blocks of Union Square, where it bears off toward the Hudson and extends in a di¬ 
rection nearly due north, through a quiet almost deserted part of upper New York, to 
about 105th Street, where it is lost in another avenue, a block away from Riverside Park. 
At one end like the country; at the other, narrow, crowded, and thickly set with mag¬ 
nificent business houses towering hundreds of feet upward in noble fagades. Through 



WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH BUILDING 



























348 


Cities of the World\ 


all its distance it is a varying scene of wholesale trade, retail business, great hotels, 
fashionable promenades, open squares, places of amusement, and long blocks of private 
houses. The Battery, named from an old fort which once stood here, is green and 
pleasant, with winding paths and lines of benches where hundreds of people walk and 
sit all day long, enjoying the sea breeze and lively harbor view; but just above it, and on 
the roadways on all sides, there is a great confusion of horse-cars, carriages, trucks, and 
countless other public and private vehicles, dashing this way and that, rumbling over the 
stone pavements to the ferry-houses, the wharves, down side streets, or joining the 
dense throng of the Bowling Green, that pours into Broadway. The great office build¬ 
ings in the vicinity of the Battery are some of the finest in New York, particularly the 



THE OLD POST OFFICE. MADE OUT OF THE ANCIENT DUTCH CHURCH. THE SITE OF WHICH 
IS NOW OCCUPIED BY THE MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE BUILDING. 

large stone-trimmed structure of the Washington Building, which stands facing the 
Battery on the corner of Bowling Green, the site occupied by the hotel where General 
Washington used to stay in the days of old. To the east of it, across the crowded 
way, is another great red brick building with rich red terra-cotta ornamentation and a 
lofty square tower two hundred feet high. This is the newly finished Produce Ex¬ 
change, which is already famous for the broad view of the harbor, suburbs and city 
from the tower, and for its vast size and office-room, its handsome fittings and great hall 



















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350 


Cities of the World. 


make it one of the chief buildings in New York. A few blocks up Broadway, in the 
midst of crowds of men with preoccupied and eager faces, hurrying up in one line, 
down in another, along the encumbered side-walks, past boxes and bales of goods, small 
fruit dealers, news and candy stands, beggars, and policemen, you are presently at the 
head of Wall Street. Great insurance offices, banks and business houses of various 
kinds and large importance, loom far skyward on all sides, and. line the narrow easterly 
running side-street as far as one can see. Wall Street is the center of a network of thor¬ 
oughfares and alley-ways, in which the greatest banking and railway business of the 
country is concentrated. Wall Street proper extends from Broadway to the East River, 
a distance of half a mile; it is densely crowded with the offices of nearly all the money 
princes of the United States; here, too, are the Custom House, the Sub-Treasury, the 
Drexel Building, offices of stock brokers, lawyers, financial managers, and all the multi¬ 
tudes connected with these branches of business. The name Wall Street comes from 
the old Dutch wall which ran along here in the days of New Amsterdam, and made the 
northern limit of the settlement, and where the Sub-Treasury now stand the first Con¬ 
gress of the United States after the adoption of the Constitution assembled, and on its 
marble steps a fine bronze statue of Washington has been placed in memory that it was 
under this portico that our first President was inaugurated. 

Near by is the entrance to the Stock Exchange, which stands on Broad Street, near 
Wall, and is reached from three different streets. The interior is occupied by a spacious 
and lofty hall, having a gallery across one end for visitors. When business is at its 
height, the “ Floor” seems to be covered with a tangled mass of men and boys, shriek¬ 
ing and waving their arms aloft like maniacs. The entire “ Street,” as all this vicinity 
is called, partakes of the same excitement, and from ten till four it is filled with a vast 
throng, which, on a great field day, seems almost delirious. Bank messengers with bags 
of gold and packages of bonds, saucy office boys, quiet looking, but shrewd detectives, 
telegraph boys in their blue uniforms with brass buttons, carrying messages from all 
parts of the world; railway kings, who control the convenience, even the life and 
sustenance of thousands; spruce clerks, and gray haired speculators. These and 
hundreds of others, whose lives are bound to the rise and fall of the market, make 
up the great surging tide of Wall Street in New York, from which run wires that hourly 
carry the news of successes and failures, large and small, to all parts of the world. 

Facing all this turmoil and confusion and these lines of stately architecture, stands 
the somber church of Old Trinity, the most venerated if not the oldest building in 
the city. This site was granted for a church before the year 1700; but the old church 
was burned in the great fire of 1776, and the building put up later was found unsafe, 
was pulled down and replaced by the present handsome Gothic sanctuary, which was 
finished in 1846. The brown sandstone of its walls and graceful steeple is in strong 
contrast to the majestic granite, brick and marble buildings which have since been built 


New York. 


35i 


around it on all sides; but the old church does not suffer by comparison; and even if it 
did, New Yorkers would not be able to see it. The spire is two hundred and eighty-four 
feet high, and from it there is a fine view of the turrets, gables and towers and upper 
stories crowning the down-town buildings; the chimes ring out the hours in a solemn 
sweetness that is heard above the rumble and roar of the traffic filling a score of streets 
close by. The gates to the old graveyard, with its many quaint headstones and the 
Martyrs’ Monument, and the doors of the church, are usually open in the daytime. 
Inside the heavy walls the noise without is but dimly heard. The gray outlines of the 
groined roof and carved Gothic columns are lost.in deep shadows, and richly brought 
out in warm colors from the stained windows. The beautiful red and white marble 
altar and reredos were built to the memory of William B. Astor. Trinity Parish owns 
some of the most valuable property in New York, and is a very rich church, as well as 
a roost active and far reaching one in charitable work. 

Few of the down-town streets are more interesting and full of variety than Fulton; 
it runs across the island, which gradually increases in width from the Battery northward, 
not far above Trinity. At its two ends are two of the greatest markets of the city— 
Fulton Market on the East River; Washington on the Hudson. It is the main thor¬ 
oughfare leading to Fulton Ferry, which carries over more people than any other, the 
boats being so packed sometimes that there is not a foot of unused standing room; it 
also reaches the other water front near a large Hudson River ferry, and has a larger 
number of well dressed men and women than any other place down town excepting 
Broadway. The street itself, like many of those running parallel and at angles with it, 
is lined with small retail shops on the ground floors and manufacturers’ lofts above, inter¬ 
spersed with large wholesale houses. There is a greater variety of articles offered for 
sale here than in any other one street in New York probably, from pins and needles to 
heavy iron-work, from guns and fishing tackle to expensive jewelry, from books and 
stationery to all sorts of cheap and cast off clothing, from paintings and bric-ci-brac to 
old iron. 

A district extending for some distance above Fuiton Street on the east side is the 
center of the hide and leather trade. It is called the “ Swamp,” from the overflows that 
used to occur here at very high tide. The streets are short and narrow, and the air 
redolent with the odor of salted hide and fresh sole-leather, mixed with the smell of kid, 
morocco and calf-skin. The approaches of the East River Bridge skirt the “ Swamp ” 
on the north, and beneath the lofty arches of the incline is New York’s only arcade of 
stores. This runs through a quarter of the most mixed up and irregular, narrow and 
encumbered streets of the city, and comes out finally and suddenly, upon the smoothly- 
mown and well-kept green of City Hall Park. 

Around and upon this stand a magnificent group of white marble buildings. Chief 
of these is the Post Office and United States Court Building, which covers a great tri- 


352 


Cities of the World. 


angle-shaped block on the south of the Park, and faces down Broadway from a point 
where several side streets open. Park Row branches obliquely off toward the east. 
From morning till night the press of pedestrians, and the noisy throng of every 
kind of New York vehicle, surge incessantly around this point. Half a dozen horse 
cars are coming down Park Row to the Broadway line, or starting up again all the time; 
coupes, hansoms, gentlemen’s coaches, with here and there a light buggy dart in and 
out amongst lumbering drays, four-horse express wagons, carts, lumber wagons and 
conveyances without number, so thick that the whole passage on the Broadway side is 



NEW COURT HOUSE, CITY HALL PARK. 

often blocked for ten minutes at a time, and crossing is unsafe except under the escort 
of a policeman. 

Facing the Post Office on the south is the tall, handsome entrance of the Herald 
Building, and above it lies Printing House Square. Opposite, the sombre gray building 
of the Astor House fills a block on the western side of Broadway; and reaching away in 




























ll .Ji.ii: llil iiiii. i " 
























































































































































354 Cities of the World. 

every direction are tall warehouses, newspaper offices, publishing houses and great busi¬ 
ness establishments of the wholesale trade. 

The Post Office and Court Building is the most imposing edifice in New York; 
the width of the south front is occupied entirely as an entrance; it measures a hundred 
and thirty feet, or a little more than one third the width of the facades on Broadway 
and Park Row, and less than one half that of the northern front. The basement is one 
great apartment, devoted to the sorting of letters and making up of the mails; the first 
floor, reached by handsome staircases and a dozen elevators, is the receiving department; 
off from its stately corridors open the sections for money-orders and registered letters, 
the stamp and envelope bureaus and the private rooms of the postmaster and secretaries. 

The United States Court rooms are on the second and 
third floors. The Post Office is never closed; over twelve 
hundred men are employed, and mails are sent out to 
over thirty thousand post offices. During a year about 
a hundred and thirty-four millions of letters and other 
mailable articles are sent out. Nearly a hundred and 
fifty millions of letters and packages are received per 
year, about one half of which go into the boxes of the 
main office for delivery; about one fourth are distributed 
by carriers, the remaining fourth being sent to the stations 
in the other parts of the city. 

The City Hall, the seat of the city government, 
stands in the center of the Park. It was the first of the 
public buildings of the city, and was built between the 
years 1803 and 1812, near what was then the outskirt of 
New York, and cost over half a million of dollars. It is 
a white marble structure, with a square clock tower, sur¬ 
mounted by a high dome, and a long front with a stately 
portico in the center. In it are the Mayor’s Office, the 
Common Council chamber and other city offices, and the 
City Library. On the second floor is the “Governor’s 
Room” where official receptions are held. There is a 
desk in this room, at which Washington wrote his first message to Congress, and 
the chairs in which the first Congress sat, and the one which Washington used at the 
time of his first inauguration. The room is hung with a gallery of paintings, containing 
many portraits of men who have been of importance to New York or the nation. 

Above the City Hall is the new Court House, fronting on Chambers Street, the upper 
boundary of the Park. It is a stately Corinthian hall of white marble, with a colonnaded 
portico and steps, which are said to be the finest piece of work of the kind in America. 







New York. 


355 

The interior is equally beautiful and elaborate in the apartments fitted up for the State 
Courts and several city departments. 

Like nearly all the thoroughfares running away from Broadway, Chambers Street— 
the center of the hardware trade in New York—takes a straight course to the river, 
crossed by two elevated railways and ending among the commission docks and produce 
warehouses of West Street; but New Chambers, on the East side, is lost a short distance 
from the park in the tangled network of criss-cross roads, where large manufactories, 
publishing houses and other mercantile warerooms, are hedged in by great shabby dwell¬ 
ings, and some of the lowest shops anywhere seen. Five Points used to be not far from 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OF DESIGN. 


here; it is now marked by the neat Boys Lodging House, and city mission that was 
founded more than twenty-four years ago in the midst of the worst slums of the city. 
Although lower New York is fast becoming exclusively devoted to business, and is 
growingto be, like “ the city ” in London, the scene of the greatest activity during the day 
and absolute quiet after business hours, there are many thickly populated districts here, 
yet. Families of five to fifteen live in a single room; little children are born and brought 
up in cellars, dark rooms and sky parlors; sometimes in buildings partly devoted to 
business, sometimes in the great blocks of five or six story tenements. The tenement 
house regions swarm with miserable, shiftless men and women, and dirty vagrant chil¬ 
dren, whose wretched little lives may have only one bright spot—-the Fresh Air Fund s 









356 


Cities of the World. 


two weeks’ trip into the country in the summer. From these quarters come the great 
mass of the city’s cheap labor, and the greatest number of petty criminals. Numerous 
grog shops and low gambling dens stand on every block, and make a center of attrac¬ 
tion for groups of men and women. Sometimes these houses have a cramped inner 
court reached by narrow alley-ways beneath the buildings; but they have no yard room; 
nothing fresh or green, save here and there a poor little plant in some sewing woman’s 
window, or a bunch of flowers that has found its way here through the Flower Mission. 
Clothes are either dried on the roofs or by ropes extended from a window to the oppo¬ 
site wall. Further up town these tenements are succeeded by better built brick buildings 
with two or three rooms to a family, and a small grass plot in a little back yard; and in 



the broad new streets of the upper districts there are substantial flats, let in floors, a fam¬ 
ily to each; and enormous, finely built apartment houses, that are among the most luxu¬ 
rious homes and most imposing buildings the city can show. These are in the vicinity 
of Central Park, and along the streets and avenues near the center of the city, while 
the poor tenements are mostly near the river fronts. The localities adjacent to the 
wharves and docks teem with a sort of life peculiar to themselves. The streets, the' 
dirtiest and most unsightly you can find, are always choked with heavy drays, trucks, bag¬ 
gage and freight wagons; the sidewalks and the wharves, lined with shipping whose bow¬ 
sprits extend far across the street, are crowded with “waterside characters,’’ lounging 























































New York. 


357 


amongst the roughest of the laboring classes who find employment here. Low 
“ dives ” and rum-shops and eating houses are at every turn. But in the midst of all 
this, much of which hinders, rather than helps traffic, there is more important business 
carried on in the vicinity of West Street along the North River, and South Street on the 
East River, than it is possible to estimate. In the vicinity of the Hudson River block 
bounded by West, Little Twelfth, Washington and Gansevoort streets, known as the 
Market Wagon Stand, is a strange sight in the early mornings. For nearly a mile, 
within a few blocks of the river, the streets are packed close with market wagoners from 
the country, who have brought in part of New York’s vegetable supply for the day. By 



ASTOR LIBRARY. 


seven o’clock, the tanned faces and big wagons of all the farmers, gardeners and huck¬ 
ster women have disappeared. Their produce is scattered far and wide through the 
city, into the markets, or on the wagons of the licensed venders, who cry their wares 
through the poorer of the uptown streets. 

The handsome new Jefferson Market is about a half mile from here, toward the 
center of the city, built in the same style and adjoining the house of the Third District 
Court of New York, commonly known as the Jefferson Market Police Court. The 















358 


Cities of the World. 

buildings are of brick trimmed with light stone and terra-cotta, with gabled roofs, sur¬ 
mounted by several small ornamental towers and one large round clock tower, rising 
far above the Metropolitan Elevated Railway. 

The important retail stores for which the avenue is famous, begin in this vicinity, 
and extend in handsome lines of tall glass fronts, for several miles up. Next to Broad¬ 
way, it is the busiest and most crowded street of first class retail establishments running 
north and south. Not far above the Court House it crosses Fourteenth Street and, further 
on, Twenty-Third Street; both of these connect with Broadway, and combined, are the 
seat of the best stores for every kind of goods that fashion, taste, comfort or necessity 
could demand for household or personal use. Fourteenth Street crosses Broadway at 


NEW YORK CITY COLLEGE. 



Union Square, the first open space of any size on Broadway above the City Hall. This 
little park, skirted and crossed in several directions by broad, smoothly paved side¬ 
walks, covers about three and a half acres, planted with trees, laid out with green, vel¬ 
vety lawns. There is a large fountain in the center, surrounded with gay plants, one or 
two drinking fountains at the sides, and at the lower end there are large conspicuous 
statues of Washington, Lincoln and Lafayette. The boundaries of Union Square are 
Fourteenth and Seventeenth streets south and north; Broadway and Fourth Avenue, 
east and west. The thoroughfares are very wide on all sides, and are built up with 

















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STREET AND BOWERY, SHOWING ELEVATED RAILROAD STATION 










































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































360 


Cities of the World. 


some of the most imposing business houses to be seen, with several large hotels and 
theaters. The crowd here is always interesting, always dense and well dressed. 

Below, Broadway is lined on both sides with great dry goods stores, extensive 
hotels, and a few theaters, all the way to Canal Street. Up and down in the road and 
on the sidewalk the greatest streams of people anywhere to be seen are constantly mov¬ 
ing. Early in the morning it flows chiefly downward, and is made up of working people, 
sewing girls, young clerks, and countless others pouring into it from every side street, 
and disappearing as suddenly as they came. At eight or nine o’clock the procession, 
still moving downward, is chiefly of business men on their way to counting rooms and 



GRAND CENTRAL DEPOT-GRAND UNION HOTEL, FORTY-SECOND ST. AND PARK AVENUE. 


offices. From ten to three, there are two streams, one going down another up; there 
are ladies shopping, errand and messenger boys, strangers, collectors, sellers and other 
“ outside ” business men, darting in and out of doorways, with not a moment to lose. And 
between the sidewalks, each with its two throngs keeping to the right, all manner of 
vehicles pass up and down, with the densely packed and frequent running horse cars 
between. At four o’clock the promenading begins, when Broadway’s most elegant and 
fashionable crowd appears, to vanish in the course of an hour or so, and be followed by 
an upward stream of homeward bound workers. After nightfall the crowds are thinner. 
























New York. 


3 61 

and made up of pleasure seekers, midnight prowlers, and guilty souls that shun the day¬ 
light publicity. A few blocks to the east the scene is duplicated on a cheaper and 
shoddy scale beneath the Elevated Road of Third Avenue and the Bowery 

A few blocks above Union Square at Twenty-Third Street, Broadway and Fifth 
Avenue—the great street of palatial dwellings and Sunday promenades—meet at an 
acute angle just below Madison Square, the pleasantest little park in the great city. 
The settees beneath the fine shade trees and bordering the trim lawns, are often filled 
with guests of the hotels, or some of the residents near by, reading the morning paper 
or enjoying a neighborly chat. The white-capped nurses, and children playing running 
games, and flying about on roller skates, have a more aristocratic look than those you 


if ■' 



BOW BRIDGE, SKATING POND, CENTRAL PARK. 


see in any of the lower parks, and there is no square in the city but has them. In the 
vicinity tnere are eight or ten of the finest New York hotels and restaurants, including 
the Fifth Avenue Hotel and Delmonicos’, and the elegant cafe of the Hoffman House 
and the Brunswick Restaurant. 

The most stately avenue of residences in the country lies between this square and 
Central Park. The artistic porches and windows of the Fifth Avenue mansions, the 
stately churches and noble halls that line it for miles, the smooth roadway and broad 
sidewalks, make it the most popular and agreeable drive and promenade in New York; 
here is the majestic St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and other fine churches; above Fifty-ninth 
Street it is bounded on the west side by Central Park, for more than fifty blocks. Now, 




362 Cities of the World. 

the buildings, still extensive and elegant, are rather more scattered, till finally it ends, 
after a long stretch of vacant lots, interrupted once by Mount Morris Park, at a gay 
little bay on the Harlem River. 

At some little distance below Union Square, the plan of the streets undergoes a 
change; and from thence upward the whole width of the island is laid out in regular 
squares, streets known by numbers, extending from east to west, crossing at right angles 
the avenues running lengthwise. A few of these are occupied wholly or partially by 
stores, manufactories, and for other business purposes, but chiefly in solid blocks of 
dwellings, where one family to a house is rather the exception than the rule, especially 
out of Fifth and Madison Avenues. 



THE PROMENADE, CENTRAL PARK. 


New York is below most large cities in the number of its pleasure grounds and 
breathing places, there being only nineteen in all, scattered among its closely built streets; 
even Central Park is small compared to the great parks of European cities; but it lacks 
nothing in beauty and variety, and in gayety or delicious quiet it ranks with the best. 
It is a regular oblong in shape, covering a little less than eight hundred and fifty acres of 
naturally beautiful grounds, comprising rocky hills, ravines, and picturesque lakes 
with banks overhung by fine shrubbery or noble shade trees, dotted here and there 
with fancy boat-houses, or arched over by rustic bridges. Long magnificent drives, 
bridle-paths and winding foot walks extend in every direction, crossing ravines by 
beautiful marble bridges, tunnelling hills with massive archways, branching off into 
sequestered arbors or terminating in lofty summer-houses. It is a popular resort for 
all classes and all ages. In it is the fashionable drive, where some of the finest horses 


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THE LAKE IN THE CENTRAL PARK 























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































364 


Cities of the World. 

and most elegant carriages, as well as the richest and most celebrated people in the 
country may be seen almost any pleasant afternoon, riding in stately magnificence among 
every other grade of equipage, including the poorest hacks, or the commodious open 
park stages. The greatest mass of people is always to be seen on the Mall, a broad 
and beautiful tree-lined avenue, which extends from the vicinity of the old Arsenal, 
Museum and zoological collections to the lake, in about the center of the lower half of 
the Park. 

The finest of the museum buildings is that of Natural History at Seventy-seventh 
Street on the western outskirts, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, nearly opposite, 



VINERY NEAR THE CASINO, OVERLOOKING THE PROMENADE, 
CENTRAL PARK. 


overlooking Fifth Avenue. On a knoll near by stands the great stone Obelisk, which 
was made by the ancient Egyptians, more than fifteen centuries before Christ, and 
erected at Heliopolis, afterward transferred to Alexandria during the reign of the 
Ptolomies, and to the United States as a gift of the late Khedive of Egypt, a few years 
ago. 

About opposite the Natural History Museum and westward of it, is the lower end of 
Riverside Park, a charming place for a ramble or drive, extending in a long and narrow 
strip for about three miles along the high shore of the Hudson River. The head of the 
Park, almost all of which is comprised in one broad picturesque drive, has been chosen 
for the monument to General Grant, whose body now rests in a temporary tomb, built 
on purpose. 

Above Central Park, especially across the Harlem River, the city is more or less 








New York. 


365 


scattered. Blocks of brick or brown-stone residences and flats extend, with now and then 
a vacant lot or set of shanties, in many of the streets and avenues, while in some places 
there are long stretches of unused land, and but partly improved avenues, intersected 



OLD ARSENAL IN PARK, NOW THE MENAGERIE. 


by roads, some of them old and irregular, leading to the Jerome Park Race-course, 
Woodlawn Cemetery, and various parts of Westchester and Yonkers. 

The manufactures of New York include thousands of industries, and are greater 



MUSIC STAND, CENTRAL PARK. 

than those of any other American city. It has the largest trade centered at any. one 
place in the world, being the headquarters for more than one half the United States’ 
commerce, and the greatest grain market in the world. Corn and wheat brought from 




366 Cities of the World\ 

the Western States are stored here in immense elevators, from which they are loaded 
into ships and taken to Europe. 

The schools, colleges, universities and special institutes, the public libraries and 
benevolent institutions are very many, and stand among the best in the world. 

New York’s greatest suburb is the city of Brooklyn, lying beside the metropolis on 
the opposite bank of the East River, and connected with it by the magnificent suspen¬ 
sion bridge, which is the largest and finest of its kind in the world. The sister city is 
quite distinct in its management and its characteristics from Gotham, as Washington 
Irving has called New York. Many fine broad streets near the ferries are occupied 



BRIDGE CONNECTING BROOKLYN AND NEW YORK CITY. 


with stores that rival those across the river, and the public buildings and city institu¬ 
tions are beautiful and imposing; the religious buildings are so many that it is well known 
as the City of Churches; but in the main this is a vast home city, where the great over¬ 
flow of New York’s poor, well-to-do and wealthy workers and business men make their 
homes. There is an air of comparative quiet here, though the streets are lined mile 
after mile with closely packed buildings, and teem with life, especially at night, when 
the city gathers to itself about six hundred thousand souls. The most attractive anc 
aristocratic portion is the commanding bluff above the river, known as Brooklyn Heights. 
The streets here are built up with the same taste and elegance seen in the Fifth Avenue 





























NIAGARA. 

































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Cities of the World. 


368 

mansions, to which Clinton Street and Columbia Heights correspond as a fashionable prom¬ 
enade, while Clinton Avenue, with a great width ornamented with splendid shade trees, 
and lined with beautiful residences, surrounded by handsomely designed grounds, sur¬ 
passes anything to be seen in New York. The Heights are below the Suspension Bridge, 
about opposite the Battery. Along the shore below, and extending out of sight in both 
directions, the entire water front is occupied by piers, slips, warehouses, ship-yards and 
ferries. At an angle some distance above the Bridge, opposite Corlears Hook at the 
foot of Grand street, New York, is the United States Cob Dock, encircled by the Walla- 
bout Bay, a deep channel which separates it from the Navy Yard. 

Below the heights, separated from Governor’s Island, where Fort Columbus stands, 
and General Schuyler rules supreme, is the great Atlantic Dock. This encloses a basin 
of forty acres’ extent, and a uniform depth of twenty-five feet. Hundreds of the largest 
ships that enter the New York port can be accommodated here at once. 

Brooklyn’s great resort is Prospect Park, which lies on the southern outskirts near 
Windsor Terrace and Greenwood Cemetery. It was not laid out until after the close of 
the Rebellion, but has no unpleasantly new appearance, in its vast extent of groves and 
lawns, grassy knolls and quiet dells; the roads are hard and smooth, the walks planted 
with trees and shrubbery, and amply supplied with drinking fountains, seats and shady 
resting places; and in many places there are little pavilions for refreshments. The 
lake covers over sixty acres, and is a grand place for skating in winter, a charming sheet 
for rowing in the warmer months. 

Lookout Carriage Concourse, the highest point, is a large knoll almost two hundred 
feet above the sea, with a fine view of the harbor and the distant points of beauty, extend¬ 
ing down the Bay, up the Hudson to the Palisades, and westward to the Orange Mountains. 
At the southern end of the Park twenty-five acres have been cleared and fitted for the 
National Guard Parade Ground, where all the well-drilled regiments of the two cities 
are inspected twice a year, and at other times games of polo, cricket and baseball are 
frequently played. 

Buffalo, the third city of the Empire State, is twelfth in the Union, exceeding in 
size and importance many of the State capitals, even that of New York. It stands at 
the head of Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Niagara River, the granite tower of the City 
Hall stretching haughtily above the surrounding acres of countless factory chimneys 
and steam pipes, which send up filmy volumes that hang like a curtain over the sea¬ 
board districts. 

“ Northward, past the high bluffs crowned by the ruins of Fort Porter and the stone 
copings of The Front , flows the Niagara. Parallel with it, packed with long lines of 
freighted boats towed by slow-paced horses, is the Erie Canal. South and westward, 
Lake Erie spreads out in endless billows; and at the east, forming a noble background 
to the city, rise the Chautauqua hills and the highlands of Evans and Wales.” 


Buffalo. 


369 


In the foreground stands an imposing row of nearly forty grain elevators, extending 
a mile along Buffalo Creek; one of them on the spot where the first invention of a steam 
storage transfer elevator was built as an experiment in 1842. Part of the creek has 
been made into a capacious and well protected harbor, extending in front of the city 
and opening on the lake; but the great grain port is growing to need more than this, so 
the government is now building immense breakwaters to form a large outside harbor. 
All through the summer the harbor is full of life; tugs dart hither and yon, lake vessels, 
big and little, receive their cargoes, huge steamers and propellers take on passengers 
or freight for the upper 
lake, while numerous pleas¬ 
ure yachts steam toward 
the International Bridge, 
which opens in the center 
with a massive swing to let 
them pass. Finally, and 
most important, stretching 
in all directions, are the 
railroads between the Great 
West and the Eastern sea¬ 
board. The Queen City of 
the Empire State is the 
starting point or terminus 
of twenty different railway 
lines. The transfer yards 
at East Buffalo are the 
largest in the world, and 
the network of tracks that 
extends around the harbor 
side of the city, pours out 
a vast quantity of coal, salt 
and petroleum in the lake 
vessels, in return for cargoes of grain, flour, lumber, iron and copper ore. 

“ Commercial Buffalo is like a portly and self-satisfied spider, supreme in the center 
of her web.” There are more than four square miles of territory within the city limits 
owned by railroad corporations; and so immense is the coal trade here, that if it were 
not so celebrated as a railroad center, it would be famous as a coal depot; without 
either of these interests it would stand as one of the leading live stock markets of the 
country; this gone too, it would be a famous grape-sugar manufacturing place; the city 
originated this industry, and leads it before the world; and world-wide also is its fame 
24 







370 


Cities of the World. 


for the building of the cantilever bridge of the Michigan Central Railroad, over the 
Niagara River. Beside these there are immense oil refineries, malt-houses, breweries, 
distilleries, chemical works and ship-yards, hundreds of large factories that supply a 
thriving trade in carriage wheels, stoves, engines, farming tools, boots and shoes, to 
say nothing of the many active smaller establishments, in all making the number of 
Buffalo’s manufactories into the thousands. 

The streets of the city run out diagonally from Park Terrace, and adjoining Niagara 
Square, which lies up from the lake shore just above the mouth of the river-like harbor. 
The arrangement of the Buffalo streets is very peculiar, for while they nearly all run 
out from this common center, they are long and straight, excepting where Genesee, 
Batavia, and a few other streets crossing obliquely form regular square or oblong blocks. 
The chief business thoroughfare is Main Street, and crosses the town a few blocks east 
of Niagara Square. 

In the buildings here, as everywhere in her business sections, you see a picturesque 
combination of the old Dutch town and the new enterprising American city. But while 
Buffalo may be justly proud of her wealth and trade, it has little to boast of in public 
buildings. The City and County Hall is a fine Venetian structure in granite, with a 
clock tower almost as high as Trinity steeple in New York. Its main front is on 
Franklin Street; on the other side it overlooks Delaware Avenue, which, like nearly all 
the other thoroughfares, is broad, well-paved, and lined with noble shade trees. The Jail 
is opposite the City Hall, a massive limestone building; the other noteworthy structures 
are the United States Custom House and the Post Office, the State Arsenal, the Erie 
County Penitentiary, and surpassing all the others perhaps, the large and imposing State 
Insane Asylum. Of the seventy-five churches in Buffalo, the Roman Catholic Cathe¬ 
dral and St. Paul’s Episcopal are the finest, and although none of the schools or other 
educational institutions are particularly noteworthy as buildings, the city and the State 
has reason to be proud of them for their usefulness. The homes, hospitals and 
asylums are many; they comprise some of the noblest institutions of the country; es¬ 
pecially those where poor or homeless little folks are cared for in the day nursery, or 
where they live under the motherly eyes of matrons and nurses in great happy families, 
fostered by benevolent people. 

Buffalo is almost as much of a cosmopolitan city as New York. Germans, English, 
Italians, Swedes, Poles, Japanese, Turks and Arabs, most of them dressed after Ameri¬ 
can fashions, make up a large part of the throng in the crowded streets; have their 
names in the membership books of the leading clubs and societies; take their part in all 
the industries—one long business street is called Germantown—have their festivals, and 
in every way hold a very large share in the interests, the welfare and the importance 
of the Queen City. An hour’s ride brings you to the famous Niagara Falls. 

The capital of New York is Albany, a city of about a hundred thousand people, 


Rochester . 


37 * 


and ranking fourth in the State. It is finely situated on the Hudson River, not quite 
a hundred and fifty miles from New York city. Its importance as a river port is in¬ 
creased by connection with the North through the Champlain Canal, with the West by 
the Erie Canal, and by several lines of railroad meeting here. It is one of the largest 
timber markets in the world; receiving about seven million dollars’ worth every year; 
it is also a center for other business operations, and is especially noted for its stove 
factories. 

The streets are not generally very regular, nor its houses especially elegant, but its 
schools, colleges and other institutions are many and well planned; its public works, 
with a fine marble City Hall, are good. The arrangements and departments for the 



STATE CAPITOL, ALBANY. 

State government are very fine, particularly the new building of the Capitol, which is 
one of the noblest in America. It is built of granite, and covers more than three acres 
of ground, while in its fair proportions and its magnificent fittings, it can only be com¬ 
pared to the national capitol at Washington. 

The second city of western New York is Rochester. It is somewhat east of 
Buffalo, on the Genesee River, seven miles from its mouth in Lake Ontario. It has 
about a thousand less people than Albany, and has one of the best universities in the 
country. The river has four high and beautiful falls in the city, which are of practical 
benefit as well as picturesque value to the locality, and furnish water power to many large 
mills and factories. Among the most important industries are the manufacture of flour, 
clothing, boots and shoes, beer, locomotives, steam-engines and tools. It is also cele- 














Cities of the World. 


372 

brated for great nursery gardens, from which plants and seeds are sent to all parts of 
the United States. Some of these nurseries bring a great deal of wealth into the place; 
and their owners have built magnificent villas surrounded with extensive grounds in or 
near the city. Nearly all the houses lining the handsome wide streets have pretty 
yards and gardens. The public and private buildings, exhibitions and art galleries, 
are fine also. The Warner Observatory is one of the best in the country, and the geo¬ 
logical cabinet at the University has not many superiors in the United States. 

The head of steamboat travel on the Hudson and the great seat of iron-works on 
this side of the Alleghany Mountains is Troy. The stove-works and bell foundries, for 
which it is celebrated throughout the world, are the largest in the United States, and 
there are great manufactories of railroad cars, machines, tools and many other things 
The water power for all these industries is furnished by the great dam crossing the 
Hudson opposite the city, and by the falls of some smaller streams in the vicinity. 
The almost limitless water supply is also used in running great steam laundries, which 
wash and iron vast quantities of clothes; some of which are sent from Boston, New 
York and other large cities. In population Troy is a little more than half the size of 
Buffalo, and about the same as Syracuse. 

Syracuse is one of the principal inland cities of the State; it is a meeting-place 
for many railroads and canals, lies in the midst of a fertile and thickly populated part 
of the country, which gives it a large trade. It is principally noted for its salt works, 
which are the most extensive in the Union. The salt is made from the water of salt 
springs, and deep wells near the shore of Onondaga Lake. The salt water drawn from 
the wells by steam pipes, is left to grow thick in large wooden tanks, which cover 
several square miles of ground, each one having a roof which can be rolled over it in 
rainy weather. When thick enough, the water is drawn out and boiled in kettles, until 
it all passes off in steam. 

Boston, the capital of Massachusetts, and the metropolis of New England, stands 
fifth in size among the cities of the United States. According to the new census, there 
are nearly four hundred thousand people living there, and it is one of the most famous 
places in the world. It is the center of culture for the country, a wealthy and influential 
city, which is jokingly called the “Hub of the Universe.” The original settlement, 
around which there lingers so much of historic interest, is now part of what is known as 
the North End, and is abandoned to the poorest dwellings and great warehouses, while 
in every direction new districts are spreading out into fresh business quarters and ex¬ 
tensive avenues of dwellings. 

When you leave the broad expanse of Massachusetts Bay, and enter Boston Harbor, 
unless you are in a sloop or schooner that can find its way in through the northerly- 
passage, called Broad Sound, it must be through the deep mile-wide channel, which 
connects the Bay with the Harbor beyond; sheltered from the stiffest gale by many 


Boston. 


373 


islands, that afford no beauty but a great obstruction to free in and outward passage. 
Large ships are not now as frequent visitors-as they used to be in these waters; but 
there are many coasters and fishing schooners, while a few transatlantic lines, East 
Indiamen or some of the great Liverpool cattle steamers, are nearly always to be seen. 
1 he harbor is very safe and large, and Boston’s commerce, like its wealth, its banking 
capital, and the valuation of its property, stands next to that of New York. The water 
frontage of the city is immense. 

Old Boston is a great long peninsula; South Boston on the east of that, separated 
from it by the South Bay and the channel leading to the Harbor, is another peninsula 



FANEUIL HALL, BOSTON. 

protruding a long distance to the east; on the west of the city proper is Cambridge with 
the Charles River, itself like a bay, lying between and mingling its water with Millers 
River and the other streams that sweep around the head of North End, from East 
Cambridge and Charlestown, and mingling with the Mystic and Chelsea Creek, flow down 
between Boston and East Boston into the Harbor. It is a curious grouping of penin¬ 
sulas here, some of which have been much enlarged by filling in the little bays that once 
indented their shores, and all the ponds and creeks around, besides. In earlier days, 
the city was almost cut off from the mainland on the south and southwest, but that has 
been made as wide as the broadest part of the peninsula, and is so built up that not a 
trace of the old “ Neck,” as it was called, remains; and to it has been annexed the ad- 





274 Cities of the World. 

jacent land on almost every side, so that Boston now includes almost twenty-four thou¬ 
sand acres, more than thirty times its original area. This includes the water forked 
districts of the built-up city, and the pleasant suburbs skirting them on all sides. 

The upper part of the city proper, with Charlestown above on the left hand, and 
East Boston on the right, is the old North End, skirted back of the long wharves by 
Commercial Street, with its solidly built warehouses. Here are great stores, where 



WASHINGTON STATUE, BOSTON. 

grain, ship chandlery, fish and other articles are sold; and a continuation of it on the 
east Atlantic Avenue, keeps up a lively commercial aspect, way round to the New York 
and New England Railway Depot at the turn of Federal Street, from Fort Channel 
toward the Post Office. 

From the head of North End, Hanover Street, lately widened, takes its long curving 
course southward into the heart of crooked, irregular, busy-streeted Boston. This 
street has always been a well-known stand for cheap goods of all kinds. It is the main 






Boston. 


375 



thoroughfare to the northerly wharves* and the Winni- 
simmet Ferry, from the center of the city. The streets 
here, above, below and all sides, are crooked, irregular, 
narrow, broad, broken unexpectedly by squares, resumed 
or discontinued without any plan or uniformity, so that a 
stranger is constantly getting lost, even now, when many 
streets have been straightened, widened and re-named. 

Adjoining Dock Square, from which several of the 
newly improved streets of old Boston radiate northward 
toward the water-front, is famous old Faneuil Hall. There 
all the town meetings were held, from the time the Hall 
was first built until 1822. Before the Revolution it was 
the scene of so many stirring events and earnest discus¬ 
sions against oppression, that it is called “ Cradle of 
Liberty.” In every crisis in our history since then these 
old walls have rung with the eloquence of patriotism, as 
firm for the right and powerfully prevailing as that of the 
early heroes and statesmen whose portraits line the 
l room. The present Hall was built to take the place 
^ of the old one presented to Boston in 1742 by Peter 
Faneuil, and destroyed by fire about twenty 
years later. It was enlarged to its present size 
in 1805. There is a provision in the city char¬ 
ter forbidding its sale or lease; but it is at the 
disposal of the people, whenever a suffi¬ 
cient number, complying with certain reg¬ 
ulations, ask to have it opened. Part of 
old Mr. Faneuil’s 6bject in building the 
Hall, was to provide a town market on the 
! ground floor; but after the fire a new mar- 
J ket called Quincy, after the mayor, was 
built opposite. It is a busy scene here 
during market hours; the place is large 
and crowded; the streets surrounding it 
are broad and full of life, and lead 
to the wharves facing the harbor inlet. 

On the other side of Hanover 
Street are several more interesting 
old places; Copp’s Hill Burying 




THE NEW (old) SOUTH CHURCH, BOSTON. 










Cities of the World. 


576 

Ground, Salem Street and Christ Church and several others of the fast disappearing- 
landmarks. Within the North End district, four of the eight railroads terminating in 
Boston, have their convenient, and in some cases, imposing stations. The Boston and 
Maine Railroad comes quite into the city, discharging its passengers and freight at 
Haymarket Square. This is another meeting-place for a whole radius of broad streets, 
coming mainly from Dock Square and the market on the east, although one or two busy 
thoroughfares lead toward the intricate labyrinth in the vicinity of Scollay Square. 



COMMONWEALTH AVENUE, SHOWING THE BRATTLE SQUARE CHURCH AND THE VENDOME. 


From this most irregular triangle, with its statue of Governor Winthrop, its network 
of horse-car tracks, its Court Street and Tremont Row, you can take a direct road ap¬ 
parently to every part of Boston; but almost all of them take you a few blocks and 
leave you facing half a dozen courses, with names that mislead instead of guide you. 
But to the east lies a safe course for the present at least (if you are a sight-seer), in the 
group of buildings around Court Square, and to the south, the broad sweep of Tremont 
Street leads to the Common. The district east of Tremont Street, and extend- 












\ 


VIEW AT THE HEAD OF STATE STREET, BOSTON 





















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































37 $ Cities of the World. 

ing south and eastward from Scollay Square, is now the great business center of Boston* 
State Street is the bankers’ and brokers’ headquarters; through and around Franklin, 
Chauncy, Summer and Devonshire streets are great dry goods establishments, a branch 
of trade in which Boston leads the country; and further on is the seat of the wool in¬ 
terests, another staple in which the “Hub” is a leading market. Besides these 
branches of trade, you will see wholesale houses in iron, groceries, clothing, paper, 
fancy goods and stationery, books and pictures, music and musical instruments, jewelry, 
tea, coffee, spices, tobacco, wines and liquors, and many other branches of trade all 

clustered within a compara¬ 
tively small area, in the cen¬ 
ter of the city. Here is the 
retail trade too, and an army 
of lawyers guarding its out¬ 
skirts; from here the great 
Boston papers are issued, 
and the fame of actors and 
singers spread abroad 
through the city. It is 
the center of business, of 
thought and influence, 
and much of the pleasure 
of the New England cap¬ 
ital, and contains at the 
same time, several of the 
chief buildings, public and 
partially so. 

Perhaps the most no¬ 
ticeable of the group nearest 
Scollay Square, is the tall 
square Concord granite 
structure of the City Hall, 
with its dome crowned by an American eagle. Upon the lawn in front are statues of 
Franklin and Josiah Quincy; and back of the Hall, fronting on Court Street, is the 
County Court House. These substantial, plain, gloomy walls, with massive Doric por¬ 
tico held up by huge columns of fluted granite, will be superseded before long prob¬ 
ably by a new and more suitable one on Beacon Hill. In the pleasant looking Quincy 
granite structure on the corner of Tremont Street and Temple Place, the United States 
Courts meet. Its long, arched windows, massive towers and gray walls, make it look 
more like a church, than St. Paul’s, next door, with its severe Ionic portico and plain 
attic above. 



STATE HOUSE. 

































Boston . 


379 


Several of the narrow old thoroughfares and some of the newly broadened streets 
around this block are always filled with a stream of men and women, going toward or 
coming from the general Post Office. The building is also devoted to the Boston Sub- 
Treasury, and is a great massive structure occupying a large block and facing a spacious 
triangular square, at a point where the busiest streets of Central Boston come together 
from every direction. Three corridors, parallel and nearly on a level with the adjacent 
streets, run around the ground floor of the building, partly surrounding the great hall, 
where the post office work is carried on. The Sub-Treasury is in the second story, and 



POST OFFICE. 


has a splendid large hall, profusely adorned with rich marbles and variegated marezzo 
slabs, bronze chandeliers, plate glass and other costly trimmings. The Post Office is 
surrounded by the Equitable Building and Signal Service Offices, fine large insurance 
companies’ buildings, the Simmons Buildings and other imposing looking structures, 
or important seats of business; while on the adjacent blocks to the west are the offices 
of the great newspapers, the Advertiser , Post and the Transcript , near together and a 
little beyond the Old South Church on Washington Street, the Herald , Journal , and the 
Globe are printed in the vicinity of some of the great hotels. The Old South Church, 
quaint and interesting of itself, is one of the most famous historical buildings in the 
United States. It is now preserved by the Boston people as a loan museum of histori- 




















380 


Cities of the World. 


cal relics. A tablet above the entrance on the Washington Street side of the tower, 
gives the main facts connected with the history of the church, which often served as a 
town-hall in the troublous times, when popular feeling ran high, and the early orators 
drew crowds too great for Fanueil Hall. There is not much of the old appearance left 
now; but the records are preserved, and the museum is full of interest to all Americans, 
with its Revolutionary weapons, its flags, quaint old furniture, portraits of the New 
England fathers, and other curious and valuable mementoes. A little further on is the 
Old State House, which has been restored within the past few years, and now looks very 
much as it did when the meetings of the general colonial court were held here, and after 



CITY HALL. 


the Revolution those of the Commonwealth. Above the Old State House, Court Street 
opens into Scollay Square, and below it, State Street leads past the stately Custom 
House to Long Wharf. There seems to be no end to the interesting places, new and 
old, within this small district of Central Boston, with its great mercantile activity, and 
its public buildings. 

Following Tremont Street, from its head at Scollay Square, the most prominent 
building you see is the Boston Museum, by far the oldest, the handsomest, most com¬ 
plete and brightest place of amusement in the city. The museum part is of little im- 










Boston . 


38 i 

portance, while the theater is of great note. Adjacent are the Parker and Tremont 
hotels, and Tremont Temple, one of the most popular assembly halls in the city. On 
Tremont Row, in this vicinity, was the court quarter of old Boston, where stood the 
houses of Governor Endicott, Sir Harry Yane and Richard Bellingham, and the famous 



RECTORY OF TRINITY CHURCH, BOSTON. 

ministers, Cotton, Oxenbridge and Davenport. Close to the museum is the granite 
home of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the oldest organization of its kind in 
America. The library of books and manuscripts is very large and fine, and many rare 
historical curiosities are preserved here with great care. Beyond is the first burying 























































382 Cities of the World, 

ground established in Boston. Its curious monuments date back to the middle of the 
seventeenth century, and the remains of many of the most illustrious people of New 
England have been buried beneath its sod. It is not now used for interment, and is 
only occasionally opened to visitors. Adjoining this acre of the dead in the heart of 
the busy capital, stands old Kings Chapel, the chief Episcopal meeting house in old 
Boston; it was built in 1754, and afterward became the first Unitarian church. This 
stands on the corner of School Street, where the old Latin School used to be,—the 
place where so many of our great New England men spent the best of their study days. 



YOUNG men’s CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION BUILDING. 


The western continuation of School Street is famous old Beacon Street. This 
rounds the block occupied by the great Athenaeum Museum library, the Boston Uni¬ 
versity, old Park Street Church, with the Burying Ground in the center, which stands 
at the head of Boston Common, and makes the western boundary of that famous park, 
till it leaves it far behind, keeping on its way across the site of the old “ Neck.” Op¬ 
posite this block, still on Tremont Street, stands the most perfectly classical structure 
in Boston, Horticultural Hall. Its noble proportions of white granite rise in three great 




Boston 


383 

stories, flanked by a colonnaded buttress and statuary, and surmounted by a colossal 
figure of Ceres upon the ornamental roof front. The ground floor is used for business, 
and the two halls above are devoted to the exhibitions and meetings of the society, to 
parlor concerts, lectures, social gatherings and fairs. The old artists’ and musicians’ 
headquarters, the extensive Studio Building, are opposite. 

The Common is a comparatively small fan-shaped park, in about the center of 
the city. It is planted with trees, and covered with a velvety turf, intersected by paths, 
and skirted by malls, shaded by fine old trees. A little west of the center is the old 
Frog Pond, with its fountain, where the boys of Boston skate in winter, and, in mild 
weather, sail their miniature fleets. On one of the little hills near by is an elaborate 
Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. Charles Street, on the south, separates the Common 
from the Public Garden, whose monument and flower-beds contrast pleasantly for both 
with the simpler natural beauties of the other. From the center of the Gardens, the 
long tree-lined drive and promenade of Commonwealth Avenue extends far southward 
to the suburb of Brookline, while on either side fine streets of residences run parallel 
with it and the Charles River to West Chester Park, 
these thoroughfares, and connect them with other 
main suburban avenues, there are many noble 
churches, institutes, schools and hotels. 

The largest number of Protestant churches here 
are Unitarian, but almost every civilized religion is 
represented, and the Roman Catholic Cathedral of 
the Holy Cross is the largest church in New England. 

It is in the early English Gothic style, and covers 
more ground than the cathedrals of Strasburg, Pisa, 

Vienna, Venice or Salisbury. The front is but¬ 
tressed and towered with three spires of unequal 
height, two of which rise high above the pointed 
roof. The pillars that support the lofty clerestory 
and open timber roof are of bronze. The great 
organ is one of the best in the country, and the 
beautiful stained glass of the immense windows is 
protected by outer windows of heavy plate glass. 

There are a great many hospitals, asylums and ref¬ 
uges in the city, which generously and ably, and often 
freely, provide for the helpless, homeless and dis¬ 
tressed of the great capital. It is said that there has been more labor, material, and money 
laid out in leveling the ground, reclaiming land from the water, straightening and widening 
the streets, and improving the territory in every way, than has been spent for the same 


On some of the streets that cross 



LIBERTY TREE, BOSTON COMMON. 


3§4 


Cities of the World. 


purposes in all the other chief cities of the United States. The broad water-courses 
are crossed by causeways and bridges, excepting the wide channel to East Boston. 
This is reached by ferries, to keep the harbor open to the Navy Yard in Charlestown; 
This district is also noted for the Bunker Hill monument. 

The people of Boston are, on a whole, the most intellectual of any city in the 
country. It has been, and is the residence of the greatest number of literary people in 

the United States; its art schools 
are admirable; its musical instruc¬ 
tion at the Conservatory and else¬ 
where, is of the best; it leads in 
common school education, and in 
the number and excellence of its 
lectures and other intellectual op¬ 
portunities. This is largely due to 
Harvard University at Cambridge. 
This is the oldest and one of the 
most famous in the country. It is 
composed of a thorough classical 
college, schools of law, medicine, 
dentistry, theology, science, mining 
and agriculture, each with its own 
funds, independent of any other; but all under one general management. Some of the 
buildings are very fine; all are good, but Memorial Hall, built by the Alumni, or former 
graduates, in memory of Harvard men who fell in the Civil War, is the grandest and 
most beautiful of all. 

Not very far from the college stands the Washington Elm, under , which General 
Washington took command of the Continental army on the 3d of July, 1775. This is 
the last tree of a noble forest that once covered all this part of Cambridge. A short 
distance away is the house where Longfellow lived, and in many directions throughout 
the town there are places to be pointed out, where great writers and scholars live or have 
lived to the benefit of the world and the glory of Cambridge. 

This suburb is also famous as the first place in America where a printing press was 
set up, and it has now some of the largest and finest printing and publishing houses in the 
country. Cambridge is not under the city government of Boston, as the other adjacent 
places are; it is a city of itself, with over fifty thousand inhabitants. 

The second city of Massachusetts is Lowell: it has about sixty thousand people, 
who are, for the most part, engaged in some of the large manufactories of the place. 
The Merrimac River supplies the power, and has been the chief means of the growth of 
the city. More cotton cloth is made here than in any other place in the United States, 



NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC, BOSTON. 
















Worcester . 


385 

excepting one. It has large works where calicoes are printed, and factories where woolen 
cloths, shawls, carpets and stockings are made. The companies owning these mills 
have large model boarding houses, where only operatives live; and fine hospitals where 
sick employees are cared for free of charge. The city has beautiful public squares, 
and handsome avenues, the scenery is most picturesque, especially toward the river 
and adjacent suburbs. It is quite an important railroad center, and is provided with 
public halls, libraries and excellent institutions of all kinds. 



HARVARD COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 

Worcester, with about three thousand less people than Lowell is another noted 
manufacturing city of Massachusetts. It is in the center of a fine agricultural district, 
in a valley surrounded by beautiful hills. The streets are broad and shaded; the court 
house, the hospital, orphans' home and other benevolent institutions are celebrated in 
many parts of the State. More than fifteen hundred people are employed in making 
boots and shoes, which is the chief industry of the city; but there are also other large 
2 5 





3 86 


Cities of the World. 

manufactories, particularly of machinery and tools, thread, yarn, carpets, blankets and 
jewelry. The Worcester schools are among the best in the Union. In connection with 
the Institute of Science, there is a machine shop, where the students add to their knowl¬ 
edge by constant practice. The best library and cabinets are those of the American 
Antiquarian Society, which has some very fine buildings and extensive collections. 

Lowell’s rival in cotton cloth manufacturing is Fall River, a place of about fifty 
thousand people, at the mouth of the Taunton River. It is also a seaport with a fine 
harbor, visited by many vessels. It has a woolen factory, two calico print works, 
machine shops and other mills. A line of large and splendid steamboats connects the 
city with New York, and several railroads extend to other important places in the State. 



PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND. 


After the metropolis, the State of Rhode Island has in Providence the largest and 
richest city of New England. Standing on an arm of Narragansett Bay, it is the principal 
port of entry for the State, and has steamboats from New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore 
and Norfolk, constantly going in and out of its fine harbor. The population of the city is 
a hundred and five thousand, and a large part of the people are interested in its manu¬ 
factories; nearly a hundred and fifty of these are jewelry works; the Gorham Silver 
factories are the largest in the world; and the cotton and woolen mills are very exten- 



































New Haven. 


387 


sive; but beside these Providence has great interests centered in tool-making, screw- 
works and the manufacture of rifles, stoves, locomotives and fine engines, beside the 
trade in print calicoes, which is greatest here of any place in the United States. 

The city being on both sides of the Providence River, as the harbor is called, it 
has the full benefit of its water advantages; and to these are added two small streams, 
which supply the manufactories with water power. Above the two bridges crossing the 
river, it expands into a cove, which is a mile in circuit, and bordered by a handsome 
park, shaded with elms. In 1764 a college was founded here, and being largely en¬ 
dowed by Mr. Nicholas Brown, was named after him, Brown University. It has five 
colleges with scholarships and stipends to aid the students, a good library, a museum 
and a portrait gallery. Mr. Brown also contributed to the Athenaeum, and his bene¬ 
faction was followed by other generous gifts toward noble institutions, of which Provi¬ 
dence now has a goodly number. 

Next to Providence, and a little more than half its size in population, is New Haven, 
the beautiful “ Elm City ” of Connecticut. It stands at the head of a bay opening into 
Long Island Sound. The city itself is nearly level, occupying a sandy plain between 
the Quinipiac and Mill rivers on the east, and the West River on the west, quiet, pictur¬ 
esque streams that flow through the green meadows of the outskirts, gleaming like 
silver in the sunshine or reflecting the green of overhanging foliage. On either side of 
the city rise abruptly the bare faces of West Rock and its larger mate East Rock. 
Between, almost hidden by heavy branches in foliage season, is the city of commerce, 
manufactories and education. A generous gentleman left a large sum of money, with 
which a smoothly paved winding drive has been made around East Rock from the base 
to the summit, while all the natural beauties of trees and wild flowers and bush-grown 
dells are preserved. From the top of the Rock the view is broad, full of variety and 
beauty. To the left is the broad harbor with its wharves and docks busy day and night, 
for the city is the terminus for several steamboat lines, and is the center of retail trade 
with the surrounding country, and has nearly all the coal and freight of New England 
passing through it. Further out toward the broad blue waters of the Sound are the boat¬ 
ing grounds, and nearer by are the half hidden chimneys of New Haven’s large factories. 
Some of the largest of these are for clocks and carriages, but the city is more celebrated 
for Candee’s rubber works,—the second largest in the world—and for the Winchester 
rifle, pistol and cartridge factory; but there are also many other extensive industries, 
contrasting strangely with the quiet studious life led by many families connected with 
Yale college. The center of New Haven is occupied by a great tree-planted and grass- 
grown square called the Green. This is skirted by four broad streets, well-built up on 
one side with stores and hotels. On the other side the wide pavements are planted with 
trees and form part of the Green, which is intersected in many directions by cross walks 
and occupied here and there by the College buildings, some of the old churches, and one or 


388 


Cities of the World. 

two handsome public buildings. Through the Green and some of the adjoining grounds 
of the college is Temple Street, which for its perfect arch of graceful elms is known all 
over the world. Besides the various departments of the College, which is one of the 
greatest and best in America, there are Hopkins’ Grammar School, several other well- 
known academies and boarding schools in New Haven. The college is a university in 
all but name, and has for over a hundred years been a center for a large part of the 
social life of the city. Along the beautiful tree-lined avenues running from the Green 
in all directions there are to be seen handsome houses, surrounded by tasteful 
gardens, which are pointed out as the residence of one or another of the great intellectual 
or educational men of the country. None of the streets have a crowded appearance in 
the buildings, and many of the edifices for college or public use throughout the city are 
very handsome. There are five daily newspapers, and a large number of weekly, 
monthly and quarterly periodicals published here, while some of the most prominent 
scholars and writers we have make the city their home. 

The capital of the State, once shared by New Haven, is now solely situated at 
Hartford, about thirty-six miles distant. It is known as the Queen City of New Eng¬ 
land, from its beautiful situation on small hills at the junction of Park River with the 
Connecticut. The Park River runs through nearly the center of the city, and is crossed 
by a dozen bridges, while the Connecticut is spanned by one long bridge leading to East 
Hartford. The city is regularly laid out, and Main Street is its great thoroughfare and 
principal place of business. On State House Square in the heart of the city, is the old 
brick state-house, where the Hartford Convention met in 1815; in the secretary’s office, 
the original charter of the colony hangs, framed in wood of the charter oak; and in the 
state chamber, Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Washington is kept in company with portraits 
of all the governors of the colony and State from 1667. In the outer portions and 
' suburbs of the city are many fine residences; and nearly encircled by Park River are the 
fair pleasure grounds named Bushnell Park. In the western part is the State capitol, 
on the site once occupied by Trinity College. Resting on the brow of a hill, it com¬ 
mands a splendid view, and its sculptured galleried front and lofty arches and columns 
in white marble, are seen from all parts of the city. The new site of Trinity College 
covers about eighty acres on Rock Hill, approached by avenues leading through the 
most delightful parts of the city. The buildings are of brown-stone, designed to form 
three great quadrangles and to be in every way the best edifices.for education in the 
country. There are some magnificent aristocratic family mansions in Hartford. “ Mark 
Twain,” the late Mrs. Sigourney, and several other well-known literary people, have 
made their residences here. The first deaf and dumb institute was founded in Hartford 
by Dr. Gallaudet in 1817; it stands on a shady hill, and usually has over two hundred 
inmates all the time. There are other beneficent institutions, public buildings, churches 
and monuments, and a large number of wealthy societies in the city, for it is said that 


3§9 


Hartford. 

in proportion to the number of people, about forty-three thousand, Hartford is the 
richest city in America. It is also celebrated for its fine libraries and schools, and its 
great insurance companies, which have agents all over the United States. The works 
of the Colt Firearms Company cover almost a hundred and twenty-five acres of ground; 
beside these there are other pistol and rifle works, large steam-engine and sewing ma- 



THE CAPITOL, HARTFORD. 

chine factories, carriage shops, and industries in silk, hardware, screws, gold pens and 
spectacles. 

The chief place of northern New England, and fifth in size after Boston, is Portland. 
It is the principal city though not the capital of Maine, and is beautifully situated on a 
peninsula three miles long and one quarter that width, that forms a spacious harbor on 
the south and west side of Casco Bay. Its streets, which are broad and shaded with 





390 


Cities of the World 

trees, ascend from the shore to the heights above, where the finest residences and some 
of the large public institutions are situated. It is the terminus, or an important depot, for 
a large number of railways, and a great transfer station from land to water routes. Its 
imports and exports are each worth over twenty million dollars a year, being largely 
with Canada, while several lines run to Europe, the West Indies, South America and 
many to the principal United States ports. The water front is lined with wharves and 
docks, beyond which runs a marginal railway. The Custom House, in cold dignity of 
granite and marble, is just above the principal wharves, while Congress Street and the 
other main thoroughfares are higher up. The city is closely and well-built; the stores 



FRIENDS’ MEETING-HOUSE AND ACADEMY, SOUTH FOURTH STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 

are very showy and well-stocked, and there is an air of coming and going, peculiar to 
seaport cities, all the time. Many a visitor who has to wait over several hours for train 
or boat is grateful for the excellent free library he finds in Portland; or takes pleasure 
in seeing the good institutions, although these do not differ greatly from those in every 
public-spirited, well-managed city. Ship-building and the manufacture of iron are im¬ 
portant industries, along with works for preparing or making petroleum, carriages, 
furniture, varnishes, boots and shoes, moccasins, cement, pipe, leather, sleighs, jewelry 
and many other things. The population of Portland is not quite thirty-five thousand. 

The second place among our great cities is claimed by Philadelphia. Boston 
disputes this in general importance, but not in size; for the population of the Pennsyl¬ 
vania metropolis is about eight hundred and fifty thousand. New York’s alone is greater. 
It is reached from the sea through Delaware Bay, being situated on the Delaware River 
at the mouth of the Schuylkill. It is a broad, fair stream, and the bay is fine enough to 





Ph Hade Ip h ia . 391 

accommodate all the fleets in the world. The commerce and other industries sustained 
by the rivers is of great value, not only to the city but to the interests of the nation. 
The city lies on the west bank of the Delaware, but its limits extend on both sides. It 
occupies the peninsula between the two rivers, and extends for some distance westward 
of the Schuylkill. It is said to contain three distinct cities. Uptown, Downtown and 



IN THE BURIAL GROUND, FIFTH AND ARCH STREETS. 


the northeast portion, still called Port Richmond. This is where the coal wharves are, 
and the huts of the shad fishermen, along with some better dwellings. Miles of wharves 
and piers line the Delaware shore, where the largest vessels come up, and a greater 
commercial trade is carried on than in any other city of America, excepting New York. 










39 2 


Cities of the World, 



The plan of the city was laid out in regular blocks, called squares by the Philadelphians, 
by William Penn in 1682; and although it has long since outgrown the limits he set, the 
same regularity and simplicity of arrangement have been followed. The streets are 

numbered from the river, and named north and 
south, and the houses are so numbered that one who 
knows anything about the city can tell just about 
where a house stands, if he know the number. The 
first block of a street begins with number one; the 
second begins with one hundred; 
the third block two hundred; 
and so on in blocks of one hun¬ 
dred throughout. The practice 
of numbering houses on the 
streets of our cities began here; 
it was introduced by Marshal, 
who took the second United 
States census in Philadelphia. 
It was in that census that all the 
inhabitants of the country were 
mentioned by name. 

The most 
import ant 
streets inter¬ 
sect the city 
from oppo¬ 
site direc¬ 
tions, and 
cross each 
other in the 
center, where 
the magnifi¬ 
cent marble 
building of 
the City 
Hall stands. 
Market 


THE RIDGWAY LIBRARY, PHILADELPHIA. Street runs 

from the 

Delaware across town, over the Schuylkill, to Cedar Creek on the western outskirts; and 





























Philadelphia . 393 

Broad Street runs through the center of the peninsula, from north to south. It is in 
these streets and in their vicinity, that the business activity and' the gayety of Phila* 
delphia reach their height. The thoroughfares are very broad; the stores, public offi- 
ces, churches and other buildings are large and handsome; and the crowd is ever present 
and truly characteristic. The people do not rush about wildly jostling each other with 
hasty apologies, if any, as they do in New York and western cities; they have an air of 
quiet and dignity, without being careless or inactive. There is a good deal of variety 
and some magnificence in the buildings along the greatest streets of the Quaker City; 
but the majority of the less important and residential streets extend in regular squares 



UP THE DELAWARE RIVER. 

of plain brick houses, trimmed with marble. These 
are very neat and pretty, the more so that no house¬ 
keeper fails to have the entire front of her house and 
sidewalk below kept spotlessly clean; so the brick is 
bright red and the marble a gleaming white. Al¬ 
though Philadelphia is one of the greatest home cities in the country, it has no tenement 
houses; a dwelling is usually occupied by one family; the average is five persons to a 



























394 


Cities of the World. 


house. This is due to the building societies, which encourage the working people to 
save money and invest it in their own homes. 

Some of the most interesting places in the city are scattered among the imposing 
retail houses, banks and public offices of Chestnut Street, which runs parallel with 
Market Street. The most celebrated of these is Independence Hall. This was formerly 
the old State House of Pennsylvania, in which the Declaration of Independence was 



INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA. 


signed. It is a historical museum now, itself the chief relic of all. There are many 
portraits on its walls of famous Americans, and some very old and valuable historical 
mementoes. The celebrated old Independence Bell is kept here, and you can see the 
great crack in its side that came when its iron tongue sounded out the knell of British 
rule, and the joyful news of American liberty. In 1774 the first Continental Congress 
met at Carpenters’ Hall, on the same street, below the old State House. The national 




Philadelphia . 395 

Mint was the first in the country, and now more of our coin is turned out here than any¬ 
where else. 

Many of the banks are among the most prominent buildings in the city. The 
Bank of North America is the oldest in the country, although not so handsome as 
several near by. This vicinity is the great financial and commercial headquarters of 
the city, the “Wall Street” of Philadelphia. Traffic is the thickest here, under the 
shadow of the courts, the stately Custom House, resembling a Grecian temple, and the 
modern-looking French structure of the Post Office. Some of the great newspaper 
offices are here. One of Philadelphia’s earliest interests was printing. The first type 



PUBLIC LEDGER BUILDING, PHILADELPHIA. 


foundry in America is still at work here. Large quantities of school books are issued 
here, for Philadelphia is far advanced in education. The schools are good and numer¬ 
ous. ' The University of Pennsylvania was originally founded under another name by 
Benjamin Franklin, and Dr. William Smith. Among the other colleges and universities 
best known, is Girard College, with one of the finest groups of buildings in the city. 
The main building is of white marble, and is celebrated as the finest piece of Corinthian 
architecture in the world. This is different from most of o.ur colleges; it was founded 
by Stephen Girard, a good-hearted but eccentric gentleman, for the education of poor 


















39 6 


Cities of the World. 


white boys without fathers, and according to his will no minister or ecclesiastic of any 
sect or church is allowed to visit the college or to have anything whatever to do with its 
management. In Philadelphia, the first American Academy of art was founded; the 
present building is magnificent outside and in, and the collections filling its cabinets and 
galleries are made up of beautiful sculptures and paintings. The Ridgway Library 
is another noble structure on the same street. This is but one of many fine libraries, 
for either public or private use. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK, PHILADELPHIA. 


The Pennsylvania metropolis has a fair share of the benevolent institutions and 
charitable societies of all kinds that are to be found in every city of the United States. 
Its churches, too, are many, representing all Christian and Hebrew religions. The 
Friends, or Quakers, are a larger body here than in any other city, but the Presbyterians 
have a larger number of churches than any other sect. It has often been said that the 
“ City of Brotherly Love ” is the most aristocratic in the country; the best society there 
is made up of fine old Pennsylvania families, who keep quite aloof from Philadelphians 
in general, but make a most charming circle, given to the most perfect hospitality among 








Pittsbu rgh . 397 

themselves. When honored old William Penn planned his city, he laid out five public 
squares, but the increase in size and inhabitants soon made a need for more, and now 
there are many pleasant breathing places in almost every quarter; while west of the 
northern portion the Schuylkill threads its way through one of the largest and hand¬ 
somest city parks in the world. There are nearly three thousand acres of improved 
grounds, covered with broad lawns, fine old trees and many other lovely spots, particu¬ 
larly along the stream of the Wissahickon. This flows through a picturesque rocky 
valley clothed with trees, shrubs and wild pines, and through dark dells, where it is 
broken by numerous waterfalls. The zoological gardens adjoining has the finest 
menagerie in America; the roads are the favorite drives for all the people and the river 
is the great rowing place in summer, and skating rink in winter. 

The seat of the coal and iron trade in America is Pittsburgh. It stands where the 
Allegheny and Monongahela rivers unite, forming the broad Ohio. The city has grown 
from the Fort Duquesne built by the French in 1754, which the English took and 
rebuilt, naming it Fort Pitt, in honor of the Prime Minister of England. The Ameri¬ 
cans kept to the name after the British yoke was thrown off, because William Pitt, or 
Lord Chatham, according to his title, was on our side, and said if he were an American 
as he was Englishman, he would never yield; “never, never, never!” Pittsburgh is 
now the thirteenth city of the Union. The main part of it occupies a level peninsula 
between the rivers, but the limits have been gradually extended till the city—including 
Allegheny—extends to the opposite banks, covering the hills, and reaching far up the 
stream. The eastern part is built up with houses, some of them the luxurious homes 
of great mill and mine owners. The avenues are planted with trees and prettily laid 
out; but near the point where the Ohio begins, Pittsburgh is a closely built, bustling, 
smoky manufacturing place. Mile after mile is covered with glass mills, steel and iron 
works. Tall chimneys may be counted .by the thousands, which, during working 
seasons, send forth such clouds of smoke, that the entire city is curtained off from view 
to any one standing on the fine bluffs of Washington Heights. But when the veil is 
lifted there is no better place to see the city; its massive buildings, its closely built 
business blocks, its acres of factories, cut through by thoroughfares through which a 
constant swift-moving stream of people is surging all day and night. There are rail¬ 
roads centering here from about every large city in the Union, and the river traffic 
extends up stream and down, with a port of delivery in the district of New Orleans; it 
is connected by steamboat lines with the whole Mississippi Valley. Among its public 
buildings are a fine court house, one of the largest Roman Catholic cathedrals in the 
country, beside almost a hundred and fifty other churches, schools, colleges, public and 
private institutions and a United States arsenal. There are something near a hundred 
and sixty thousand people in the city, a targe part of them being either Irish, German 
or English. Many bridges span both the Monongahela and the Allegheny; six cross 


39 ^ 


Cities of the World. 

the latter river to the sister city of Allegheny, which is a part of the “ Smoky City’ 
although it has a separate government. 

This now ranks as ©ne of the chief manufacturing places of the “ Keystone State; * 
and it is also a favorite place for the homes of many Pittsburgh business men. Horse 
car lines connect the cities, and if it were not for the river it would be hard to tell where 
one ends and the other begins. The Western Penitentiary here, is the finest structure 
in the vicinity; it is in what is called the Norman style of architecture, and usually has 
nearly five hundred inmates, who are employed in some mechanical labor. Allegheny 
is the seat of the Western Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian church, the Theo¬ 
logical Seminary of the United Presbyterian church, and the Allegheny Theological 
Institute of the Reformed Presbyterian church. The city park is handsomely laid out, 
and a favorite resort. The business here is much like that of Pittsburgh; it consists 
mainly of rolling mills for iron, cotton mills, foundries, machine shops, breweries, 
steel works, blast furnaces, and extensive locomotive works. The water communications 
by rivers and canals, and the railway connections, are much the same, though not so 
extensive as those of Pittsburgh. The population is a little less than eighty thousand. 

Scranton, a city of about forty-six thousand people, is another important Pennsyl¬ 
vania coal center. It is in the Lackawanna valley, one of the richest anthracite coal dis¬ 
tricts in the world. Bordering it are hills and mountains under which there are hundreds 
of mines that extend beneath the streets of the city. After the coal is brought up the 
shafts of the mines to the surface, it is loaded in long railway trains, and carried over 
the hills to the great manufacturing centers of the country, and the sea or river ports, 
to be sent all over the world. There are many blast furnaces in Scranton, beside rolling 
mills, foundries and machine shops. Nearly half the people are foreigners, Irishmen, 
Germans, Welshmen and others; the miners spend the best part of their lives under 
ground. Some of the wealthy and generous men who have made fortunes from the 
mines, have done a great deal to improve the city. Its schools, churches, library, 
opera-house and public works are good, and in one part there is an elegant park, where 
hard-working men and women and little children—for they also have to work in the 
mines—have delightful outings on holidays. 

After Philadelphia, the chief city of the Schuylkill is the iron manufacturing center of 
Reading. There are rich iron mines in the surrounding country, the ore from which is 
brought in and used in large furnaces, rollingmills, foundries and machine shops. The iron 
is then carried to other extensive factories that turn out great quantities of iron-ware, nails, 
steam boilers and iron pipe. The water power of the river is also utilized in large brick 
yards, cotton mills, hat factories, which, with hundreds of work-shops, give employment 
to a large proportion of the forty-three thousand people living here. The machine 
shops of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad company alone employ three thousand 
men. 


399 


Ha rrisb u rgh — Wilm ington—New a rk. 

The capital of Pennsylvania is Harrisburgh, a city of over thirty thousand people, 
situated on the Susquehanna River. This, too, is a manufacturing place, abounding in 
coal and iron, busy with rolling mills, iron foundries and other Pennsylvania industries. 
It is surrounded by the beautiful scenery of a fertile country and broad clear river, and 
is handsomely laid out with wide shady streets, stately public buildings and fine houses. 

There is no State of our Union that does not do its work, give its wealth, and play 
its part in the grand Republic. Some of them, however, are almost overshadowed in 
size by their larger neighbors. This is the case with Rhode Island and Delaware, which 
have been jokingly called the “ Sleeve Buttons of the United States.” But Delaware 
also bears the title of the Diamond State, because although it is small in size it has an 
important place in the Union for vegetation and commerce. But it has no very large 
cities. 

Wilmington, which stands first, is a town of forty-two thousand people, which is 
less than there are in Reading; and, drawing the line closely, it is even smaller than 
Hartford, Connecticut. Wilmington is regularly planned and finely situated on the 
high grounds between the Christiana and Brandywine creeks. Of its churches, which 
number nearly half a hundred, the “Old Swedes’ Church” is the most interesting; it 
has stood since 1698, and is still used. Nearly all the buildings are of brick, which are 
made here in large quantities. The streets are regular, and in some of them there are 
very fine-looking buildings, especially the city hall, custom house, post office, opera- 
house and the public institute and library. The commerce with the Atlantic coast and 
the West Indies is large and important; greater probably than the inland trade, although 
there are a number of railroad lines that meet here. Some of the manufactures have 
a national reputation, such as railway-car building, morocco, carriages, paper and brick¬ 
making. Other industries are in the iron works, boot and shoe factories, foundries, 
machine-shops and places where chemicals, parlor matches and a number of other things 
are made. But the leading trade is in iron ship-building. In this it is greater than 
any other place in the country. 

The fifteenth city of the Union, and our most important manufacturing center after 
Pittsburgh, is Newark in New Jersey. It leads particularly in making jewelry, India 
rubber goods, carriages, paper, leather and machinery. The Passaic flour mills pro¬ 
duce two thousand barrels of flour a day and immense factories employ hundreds of 
men and girls in making the celebrated Clark thread. 

Although Newark was settled by a Connecticut colony in 1665, and has long been 
an important and growing port and manufacturing place, it has now more the appear¬ 
ance of an overgrown town than a city whose population is equal to that of the United 
States capital. It lies mainly on the west bank of the Passaic River, which broadens 
into Newark Bay further south, and is connected by the Kill von Kull with New York 
Harbor. Both banks are lined with docks and wharves. Near the river there are 


400 


Cities of the World. 

nothing but docks and factories, some of which are very extensive; but further west the 
long broad thoroughfare of Broad Street extends the length of the city from north to 
south. In the center of it are the principal block of stores, city buildings, banks, offices 
and insurance companies; and at either end it is lined with dwellings, and for the most 
part closely built up, but nearly everywhere planted with trees. 

The largest silk factories of the United States are located at Paterson, where also 
some very extensive locomotive works are situated close to the great water power of the 
falls in the Passaic River. The stream surrounds the city on three sides, and supplies 
it with public water. There is a small park near the Falls, which tumble over a preci¬ 
pice fifty feet high. Paterson has very little attraction beyond its great manufacturing 
interests, which directly or indirectly employ the most of its fifty thousand people. 

Jersey City, like Brooklyn, is in all but •name a part of New York City, having 
come into existence by receiving the commerce and trade crowded out of the metropolis. 
It stands on the low peninsula opposite lower New York, once known as Paulus Hook, 
now regularly laid out in wide streets crossing each other at right angles. Along the 
water front and for some distance back, it is made up of docks, piers, railroad termini, 
markets, warehouses and stores, interspersed with low wooden dwelling houses, un¬ 
wholesome shops and a large number of immense factories. On the heights there are 
handsome tree-planted avenues where many New York business men make their homes. 
The population is over a hundred and twenty thousand, four times that of Hoboken, 
the adjacent city to the north. The docks and piers, where vast quantities of freight 
are landed, where many lines of ocean steamers discharge their passengers, and several 
great ferry lines come in, extend along the shore of both cities in unbroken lines, con¬ 
stantly half-hidden by shipping. 

Hoboken is mostly peopled by Germans, but in other respects differs very little 
from Jersey City, of which it virtually forms a part. In the northern part, upon a height 
of rock overlooking the river, stands Stevens’ Institute, one of the greatest polytechni- 
cal schools in the country. An elevated railroad has just been built from the Hoboken 
Ferry to the heights, as the cliffs west of the city are called. 

After Philadelphia the greatest Atlantic port for foreign goods is Baltimore. It is 
reached from the sea through the Chesapeake Bay, and up the bay-like mouth of the 
Patapsco River. It is the chief city of Maryland, great as a port, a trading center by 
rail and water, a seat of learning, and the residence of some of the most celebrated 
foreigners and Americans of the last and the present century. It stands around a small 
bay running back from the left side of the Patapsco, about twelve miles from the 
Chesapeake, and two hundred miles from the open sea. A rapid little stream, called 
“ Jones’ Falls ” flows across the city, into what is called the North West Branch of the 
river, and divides old Baltimore and Fell’s Point on the east, from new Baltimore and 


Baltimore . 


401 

Spring Garden on the west. This furnishes immense water power for manufacturing, 
and an abundant supply of pure drinking water. 

Spring Garden, once noted for its rowdyism, is now made up of the poorest dwell¬ 
ings; the new part of the city, or Baltimore proper, is the center of trade and the home 
of the wealthiest citizens. Its southern boundary along the North West Branch is 
lined with wharves, and in the center many of the broad, regularly laid streets open on 
Patterson Park. The principal public buildings are in the center of the city, just west 
of Jones’s Falls, which are crossed by a great many bridges. The streets here are, for 
the most part, narrower than in New Baltimore, and the squares, or blocks, are some¬ 
what smaller, but the buildings are very fine. The most striking one is the new city 
hall; it covers an entire square of more than half an acre. The walls and stately portico 
are built of brick and iron cased with white marble. The fourth story is surmounted 
by a mansard roof with a lofty dome and iron towers above. The interior is well 
adapted to public offices, and is elegantly furnished. A few squares to the south is the 
Custom House, near the head of the Branch. The four sides of this edifice are colon¬ 
naded, each column being a single block of Italian marble. One of Baltimore’s “ lions ” 
is the Peabody Institute, a gift to the city from that great benefactor to England and 
the United States, George Peabody. The Institute has a large free library, an academy 
of music, a gallery of art, and rooms for the Maryland Historical Society. It also 
provides free lectures by eminent literary and scientific men. There are few cities 
better provided with charitable institutions, and all kinds of arrangements to benefit 
people, from hospitals and asylums for the care of afflicted, to schools, institutes and 
libraries for education and intellectual advancement. Mr. Johns Hopkins, a mer¬ 
chant of the city, gave about seven million dollars toward a hospital and a university, 
which are among the finest institutions in the country. The University has seventy 
fellowships open to students from any part of the country, and a still larger number 
open to young men from Maryland and adjacent States, and to be gained by competi¬ 
tion. The main purpose of the University is to provide for and encourage higher edu¬ 
cation after students have graduated from the regular colleges. The number of monu¬ 
ments that embellish Baltimore in its streets and parks and buildings, have won for it 
the name of the Monumental City. In the extreme northwest, seven hundred acres are 
set aside for public pleasure grounds in Druid Hill Park. It has twenty-five miles of 
carriage drives, and wonderful natural beauty, including forests, lakes and lawns. 

Fell’s Point is mostly a seamen’s resort, and a place of manufacturing and ship¬ 
building. This is a leading industry, and the great yards send out many vessels over 
the rolling Chesapeake, and past Fort McHenry. It was during an unsuccessful bom¬ 
bardment of this defense by the British in 1814, that Francis Scott Key, an American 
prisoner on one of the English ships, composed our national hymn of “ Star Spangled 
Banner.” Baltimore supplies the country with a large amount of iron manufactures, 


402 


Cities of the World. 


wool, copper, cotton, pottery and farming tools, and does considerable sugar-refining, 
distilling, tanning and saddle-making. There is no better brick clay in the world than 
that found near the city, and more than a hundred million bricks are made here and 
sold every year. The largest iron rolling mills in the United States are the Abbott works 
in the eastern section. 

Washington, our country’s capital, although not a large, is the finest built city 
in the Union. It stands, with its spacious avenues and fine broad streets, where the 
Potomac River receives the waters of the Eastern Branch, and takes its course south¬ 
ward between Maryland and Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay. General Washington 
chose the site of this undulating plateau forty feet above the broad Potomac, and he 
supervised the planning of the city, which was named, not by him, but after him by the 



THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON. 


nation. He called it the Federal City. The plan was laid out after Versailles by a 
French engineer, the design being first of broad streets crossing each other at right 
angles and in regular order. The site of the capitol was then selected as the center 
from which eight broad avenues were laid radiating obliquely across the checker-board 
plan; then other squares and circles were marked out and selected as the radiating points 
for more oblique avenues, so that all parts of the capital should be in direct connection 
with each other. When the splendid plan was completed, and the streets laid out, it 
was a bare network-, laughed at by foreigners and Americans, and Washington was de¬ 
risively called the “ City of magnificent distances.” But out forefathers had won a 












CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON 























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































404 


Cities of the World. 

nation to themselves, and they were not daunted by the work of building up its capital; 
and now, in less than a century, the magnificent distances are those of well-paved tree- 
planted streets and avenues flanked by majestic buildings and filled with the gayest 
society in the country. The streets from north to south are numbered; those from east 
to west are lettered; and the twenty-one thoroughfares crossing these in different direc¬ 
tions are avenues named after various States. The chief point is the Capitol, which was 
described in 1800 as “ on an eminence near the center of the immense country called ‘ the 
city;’” but it is now approached from all directions by handsome avenues, most of which 
are well built up, while east and west, north and south, hundreds of squares are rapidly 
lifting their solid blocks of architecture toward the sky. The Capitol, standing on the 
summit of a terraced hill, is the most conspicuous building in the city. The beautifully 



THE SENATE CHAMBER, WASHINGTON. 

proportioned dome over the center raises its pure white head above the stately wings 
occupied by the two great legislative bodies of the nation. The Senate Chamber, in the 
center of the north wing, is plainly furnished, but the corridors and committee rooms are 
elaborately adorned. The marble stairway is most beautiful, and the long apartment 
in the rear is constructed of the richest varieties of marble; and near by are the splendid 
room for the President and the plainer one of the vice-president. The hall of the House 
of Representatives, in the south wing, is said to be the largest legislative chamber in the 

























405 


Washington . 

world. The Supreme Court now sits in the old Senate Chamber, and in the fine old 
hall of the House there are statues of distinguished men of the several States. The 
Library of Congress is in the western projection of the central building, and the dome 
is covered with magnificent painting. A copy of every copyrighted publication in the 
country is sent to the library, and it has now become very much overcrowded. Penn¬ 
sylvania Avenue, the busiest, the finest and most fashionable in town, leads through the 
principal business quarters on the west to the President’s mansion. This is built of 
freestone with a semicircle of Ionic columns on the south, and a great colonnaded portico 
on the north. 

The British troops set fire to it in 1814, and made its walls black and unsightly; 
but they were painted over, and from that time the Executive Mansion has been called the 
White House. The rooms are most handsomely furnished; some of them are named 
after the color of their fittings. Twenty acres of ground around it are enclosed and 
handsomely laid out. The massive building of the United States Treasury faces the 
White House on the east, and on the west stands the granite structure devoted to the 
State, War, and Navy Departments. The Patent Office, the Post Office, and the City 
Hall, are between the Capitol and the President’s House, above Pennsylvania Avenue; 
while the Smithsonian Institute, one of the greatest adornments to the city, and con¬ 
taining the finest natural history museum in the country, is situated below “The Avenue,” 
as it is called, and near the National Museum and the Agricultural Department. This 
is a brick and brown-stone hall, with greenhouses, graperies and grounds for agricultural 
experiments that cover ten acres. Somewhat west of it, near the bank of the Potomac, 
on a line directly west of the Capitol and south of the Executive Mansion, is the great 
marble shaft of the Washington Monument. This is in the form of an obelisk, fifty- 
five feet square at the base, thirty-four feet square at the top, with an apex above that 
is shaped like a pyramid, and comes to a point five hundred and fifty-five feet above the 
base. The outside is all of marble blocks held together by mason-work, while there 
are a great many iron clamps and braces, and a whole network of stays inside to support 
it. An iron staircase and an elevator lead to the top, where there is a most extensive 
view over the District of Columbia, the river and the surrounding country. It is a 
magnificent and fitting monument to the man who was chief general in our war for in¬ 
dependence, and the first President of our newly formed Union. The inside of the shaft 
is set with about a hundred blocks of stone which have been presented as a tribute to 
Washington’s memory, from nearly every nation of the earth. The United States 
National Observatory is further up on the river bank between Washington and George¬ 
town, From the flagstaff on the dome of the principal building a signal ball is dropped 
every day at noon, sending the time instantly by telegraph to all parts of the United 
States. 

Eastern City, as the section on the other side of the Capitol is called, is less pre- 


406 


Cities of the World. 


tentiously built up than the western side. There are many residences here; and in the 
southern part the marine barracks and Navy Yard occupy a large section. The Arsenal 
is situated on a little square peninsula south of the Capitol, at the point where the two 
streams'come together. There are many statues and other pieces of sculpture in various 
squares and open circles; but the chief attractions in art are in the Corcoran Gallery, 
which was founded by Mr. W. W. Corcoran, a wealthy Washington banker, who also 
built the Louise Home for poor gentlewomen. The benevolent institutions, the schools, 
colleges, institutes and public city buildings are very many, and are as well managed as 
they are finely built. The population is about a hundred and fifty thousand, made up 
of people of leisure, of merchants and tradesmen, of government employees, of negroes 



POST OFFICE AND CUSTOM HOUSE, CHICAGO. 

and many others. The climate in winter is very fine, and as soon as Congress opens 
the already large number of people in the city is greatly increased; and, from then until 
the warm season there is no place in the United States, unless it is New York, that is 
so full of life and gayety. The places of amusement are all open; brilliant receptions 
are given, and some of the most beautiful private houses in the country are opened to 
parties and fashionable dinners. 

The great city west of the Atlantic seaboard is Chicago; it is the metropolis of the 
lakes and the center of trade and travel between the East and the West. It is on a 
made harbor at the southwestern end of Lake Michigan, on the two branches of the 
Chicago River. These divide the city into three divisions, known as the Northern, the 








407 


Chicago . 

Southern, and the Western. The southern stream is connected by canal with the 
Illinois River at La Salle, Wisconsin, making a direct water communication with the 



MICHIGAN AVENUE AND JACKSON STREET, CHICAGO. 


Mississippi. The harbor on the lake is protected by magnificent lines of breakwater, 
within which there is a large space for extensive ship-channels and docks. The lake 










408 


Cities of the World\ 


frontage of the city is about eight miles; and its whole area is thirty-five square miles. 
The river channels have been so deepened that the current was reversed, and the Lake 
Michigan waters flow into them. This improved the navigation very much, and carries 
off the city sewage toward the Illinois River at the rate of a mile an hour. The people 



CENTRAL MUSIC HALL, STATE AND RANDOLPH STREETS, CHICAGO. 


suffered many attacks of fever from the low marshy situation of the city, so at about the 
time of the river improvements the level of the city was raised by one of the most skillful 
pieces of engineering that was ever tried. Block after block of heavy buildings, in¬ 
cluding some of the largest hotels and stores, were raised from eight to ten feet by jack- 
screws, worked by steam power. Its lowest grade is now fourteen feet above the lake. 
Chicago is regularly laid out; the principal avenues run parallel with Michigan’s 




















COURT HOUSE AND CITY HALL; CLARK, WASHINGTON, RANDOLPH AND LASALLE STREETS, CHICAGO 










































































































































































































































































4 io 


Cities of the World. 




shore, the streets are generally eighty feet 
wide, and some of them are from three to 
seven miles long; the paving is often of 
wood, cinders or gravel; for stone is very 
scarce. The various divisions are connect¬ 
ed by several bridges, and a stone tunnel 
under the bed of each river; street-cars run 
this way and that in almost every direction. 
The business part of town is mainly in the 
southern division, or the South Side; and 
here, too, are the chief public buildings, the 
hotels and retail stores. Within a space of 
about ten blocks square nearly all the whole¬ 
sale business and a large part of the retail 
trade is carried on. South Water Street, 
which lies next to, and parallel with the 
main branch of Chicago River, is the seat of 
the commission business. Trucks, vans and 
lasalle street tunnel, Chicago. carts throng the roadway, and boxes of pro¬ 

duce from garden, orchard, field and stream, 
block the sidewalk. State Street is the great 
shopping thoroughfare, and on any fair after¬ 
noon pedestrians and carriages fill it with a gay 
throng of the wealthiest and most beautiful 
ladies in the great Illinois capital. Michigan 
Avenue, Wabash Avenue and State Street, are 
all given up to wholesale houses near the river, 
but further up their character changes. The 
first becomes Michigan Avenue Boulevard, lined 
with some beautiful and picturesque city man¬ 
sions. The County Court House and City Hall 
is a massive and elaborate building. It occu¬ 
pies a large block in the heart of South Side, 
towering in majestic proportions and handsome 
diversified stories of buttresses, colonnades, and 
caryatides far above the bustling streets where 
men rush up and down in haste, and all kinds 
of vehicles go tearing by. Another imposing 

structure is the brick and stone work of the wabash avenue and madison street. 




































CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE BUILDING; JACKSON, PACIFIC AND SHERMAN STREETS. 

work, with steps laid in small parti-colored tiles. All the street railways start from this 
part of town, and radiate toward all the well-built-up quarters. The great East and 
West street is Madison; it is splendidly paved and lined with wholesale and retail es¬ 
tablishments in the eastern portion, which is in South Division; and in the West Side it 
is the principal retail street. The street extends westward from the lake till it is finally 
lost in a rough roadway of the open prairie. The West Side is the chief manufacturing 


Criminal Court and County Jail, but even this cannot compare with the Government 
Buildings, as the Post Office and Custom House is called. This cost six million dol¬ 
lars. The Post Office occupies the basement and the first floor, in the center of which 
there is an immense court, covered with a great sky-light at the second floor, and 
open above. The upper stories are fitted up as government offices. The interior 
of the whole building is very richly finished. The floors are all laid with black and 
white marble. The grand staircases in the north and south halls are of artistic iron 



412 


Cities of the World. 


district, here are nearly all the great machinery shops, steam-engine works and boiler 
factories. There are hundreds of Irish, German and other foreign shop dealers here, 
and blocks of dingy wooden houses that escaped the great fire. Milwaukee Avenue is 
almost wholly occupied by Germans, and the poor-looking buildings here, like the people, 



CHICAGO TRIBUNE BUILDING J MADISON AND DEARBORN STREETS. 


have a foreign appearance. Street cars crossing this part of the West Side lead directly 
to the Union Stock Yards. This is the center of the greatest live stock trade in the 
world. The yards comprise a large tract partly covered by sheds and pens, and having 








































Chicago . 

o 


413 


stable-room enough for fifteen hundred horses. In all two hundred and forty thousand 
head of stock can be accommodated within this tract. All important railroads that 
enter Chicago have connections here, and the company has a hundred miles of track, in¬ 
cluding switches, to aid in the ship¬ 
ment of stock. Telegraph, post and 
banking offices are right at hand, and 
in the immediate vicinity there are 
over thirty extensive packing houses. 

The offices of the company and of the 
numerous firms engaged in the live¬ 
stock trade, are in the building known 
as Exchange Hall. There is a better 
portion of the West Side, where there 
are fine dwellings, churches and lines 
of shade trees, interspersed with bright 
little parks; and so it is with North 
Side; the streets lying near the river 
are crowded with busy working peo¬ 
ple, with factories and commission 
houses in hides, and leathers and 
wool; with a foreign population chiefly 
Scandinavian and German; and fur¬ 
ther up, proud mansions and artistic 
little houses fill the avenues and 
streets. These houses are better built 
than a great many in the city; they 
are of red pressed brick and of stone, 
varying in color and style, so that 
there is no appearance of sameness; 
the houses are built separately, not in 
blocks. Although the “divisions” 
are but parts of the one great city, 
there is considerable rivalry among 
them, which has its good results as 
well as otherwise. 

Beside the small green squares scattered plentifully throughout the interior of the 
city, there is a magnificent system of parks and boulevards almost encircling it on the 
outskirts. This is a chain of parks named after great men. On the North Side, it 
begins with Lincoln Park; on the West Side, lie Humboldt, Garfield and Douglas 



NORTH SIDE WATER WORKS TOWER, CHICAGO. 






4 r 4 


Cities of the World. 


Parks, and, completing the crescent, are Washington, Jackson and Gage Parks, and 
midway, Pleasance, just outside the city limits on South Side. This circlet of pleasure 
grounds and pleasant breathing places is linked together by boulevards, gradually being 
occupied by handsome grounds and stately architecture. Most of the boulevards are 
bordered with magnificent elms set in grassy strips between the sidewalks and the curbing. 
The oldest and best known of the parks is Lincoln, which stretches along the lake shore 
for about a mile and a half on the North Side. It covers two hundred and fifty acres, and 
is full of beauty and variety, with an infinite number of fine drives and promenades. 


<3 



PALMER HOUSE; STATE AND MONROE STREETS, CHICAGO. 


with a view of Lake Michigan and two good sized artificial lakes in the interior for 
boating and skating. The zoological gardens have, beside the collection of im¬ 
ported animals, some fine specimens of prairie dogs, buffaloes and wolves from the 
western prairie, that are highly interesting to boys and girls from the East. Humboldt 
Park is further north than any other, and although it is a little smaller and is not so 
great a popular resort as Lincoln, it is in another way most delightful. Groups of trees 
show between lawns and meadows made out of the open prairie, and border lovely lakes 
dotted with boats and overlooked by gay pavilions. The center of attraction in Garfield 
Park are the medicinal waters of the artesian well. Each of these pleasure grounds has 
its own attractiveness and beauty. All have delightful walks and drives, shady groves 


























St. Louis . 


4 i 5 

and many other devices to afford rest and pleasure to the people of the great busy city. 
The population is growing very fast, and rivals New York in its energy and push. Fine 
public improvements are being carried on all the time; the schools, colleges and special 
institutes are some of the best in the country. Chicago has about six hundred thousand 
people—as many as Brooklyn, New York. 

Next to it, with about one thousand less, comes St. Louis in Missouri. It is 
the chief city and commercial depot of the central Mississippi valley; made up of 
an old town and a new, it is finely situated on the Father of Waters, a mile below 



CUSTOM HOUSE AND POST OFFICE, ST. LOUIS. 


the entrance of the Missouri. There was a great fire in 1849, that destroyed many of 
the wooden buildings of the old town near the river, and as the rebuilding was done 
chiefly in limestone the narrow, crooked streets entirely used for trade have a very sub¬ 
stantial appearance. • 

Every city has its characteristics, and its common features. St. Louis’ peculiar 
characteristic is the river, with its eighteen miles of commercial frontage, lined with 
boats and smoking with mills and foundries, and its magnificent levee. This is a very 
wide space paved with Belgian blocks, and a gradual incline sloping to the water. Here 

































416 


Cities of the World . 


enormous quantities of all kinds of goods are landed and given temporary storeroom, 
or shipped to all the important places along six thousand miles of navigable waters, 
with which the city is in direct communication. There are no regular wharves on the 
levee, but bridges run out to landing stages moored a short distance off, so as to rise 
and fall with the tide. Front street, extending along the levee, is full of trucks and 
produce wagons, laborers, porters and a constant throng of working people. The 



COURT HOUSE, ST. LOUIS. 


levee is packed with bags and bales, wagons and kegs, and the wagons that transport 
them. Alongside lie the boats,—side-wheelers and stern-wheelers, packets, barges, 
tugs, flat-boats and dredge-boats; most of them built with many decks, like floating 
pavilions. Up stream there are two great brick German breweries, and countless mills 
and foundries, making a little village of themselves, with a host of small shops and poor 
dwellings. 

The streets are numbered west from the levee, and mount a steady rise of ground 






































St. Louis. 


4*7 

back from the river. Fourth Street is lined with large, handsome stores, and here the 
greatest retail trade is carried on and the most interesting, gay crowds of people are to 
be seen. The roadway is crowded, and through it the cars of two horse railways are 
constantly running. Some of the great hotels are here. Others stand among the large 
wholesale establishments of Fifth Street, along with the Olympic theater, the St. Louis 
Times building, Mercantile Library Hall, Union Market and the Round Top Market. 
The city is divided into northern and southern St. Louis by Market Street, one of the 



LINDELL HOTEL, ST. LOUIS. 


busiest of the trade streets, and the location of the best public buildings. Here is the 
massive, dignified Court House, on whose classical looking steps slaves were once sold 
at auction; the Grand Opera House, City Hall, and other notable structures, built for 
the most part of a beautiful soft gray colored limestone or a red sandstone, which give 
th£ city streets a gay and also a tasteful, artistic appearance. Washington Avenue leads 
to the Bridge, through lines of large wholesale houses and palatial residences. Here, 
too, are the Lindell and several other large hotels, the Catholic University, Smith's 
Academy, Washington University, and churches, hospitals, club-houses, and other note¬ 
worthy places. It has been said that more good buildings can be seen from about the 
27 

















4*8 Cities of the World. 

corners of Fourth or Fifth street and Washington Avenue than anywhere else They 
are five-storied, substantial, and in some cases beautifully ornamented. The bridge is 


about two thousand and fifty feet long, without counting the approaches, and is one of 
Captain Eads’ great pieces of engineering. Its great arches span the waters to the is- 


FOURTH ST. LOOKING NORTH FROM CHESTNUT. 




























St. Louis. 


419 

land now called East St. Louis, where there are many extensive store-houses and depots. 
The view of stream and city from the bridge is extensive and full of life and variety. 
The city is seen to rise gently from the water in three terraces. The dense commercial 
quarters first, then the fine thoroughfares and stately buildings belonging to general 
trade and public works, creeping up to the clusters of residences which occupy the last 
terrace in the handsome surburb of Cote Briiliante. This is about two hundred feet 
high and four miles back. The streets going westward up this rise between Washington 



REPUBLICAN BUILDING, ST. LOUIS. 


Avenue on the north and Pine Street on the south, are built up with comfortable dwell¬ 
ings, while on some of the cross avenues the mansions are quite elegant in appearance. 
But on the whole St. Louis houses show more of a desire for comfort than elegance, 
which is a characteristic of the Germans at home or abroad. This is one of the largest 
German cities of the West, and in summer-time looks very much like a transplanted city 
of the Fatherland. The bridge is crowded with promenaders; open-air gardens are 
opened and summer theaters, decorated with plants, and furnished with music and re¬ 
freshments. The sidewalks in front of the principal restaurants are filled with groups 














Cities of the World, 


420 



they chat, sip refreshments and enjoy them¬ 
selves till their rooms have cooled and they 
can go home and pass a comfortable night. 

Among the regular resorts about the 
city, the Fair Grounds—a beautiful park 
and zoological garden—always has a large, 
gay crowd, especially during the Fair week. 
Forest Park is a tract of nearly fifteen hun¬ 
dred acres of wooded rural ground, and 
beyond it is Shaw’s Garden. This is open 
to the public by the generosity of Mr. 
Henry Shaw, to whose private domain this 
lovely stretch of flower-beds, conservato¬ 
ries, rare trees and valuable plants, with a 
museum and botanical library belong; the 
Lower Grove, a long handsome strip of 
land adjoining, Mr. Shaw has presented to 
the city. Lafayette Park is a square about 
as large and of much the same sort as 
Boston Common, surrounded by aristocratic 
houses. Beside its immense water facilities, 
St. Louis is the center for sixteen lines of 
railway, some of them being the main roads 
of the country. The chief use of these 
roads is for shipment of the articles manu¬ 
factured in the city. New York and Phila¬ 
delphia are the only places in America that 
produce greater quantities of general arti- 


of people gathered around little tables; 


OPERA HOUSE, ST. LOUIS. 



cles; and in flour-making St. Louis 
leads the whole country. 

Cincinnati, on the Ohio 
River, and the chief city of the 
State of Ohio, is a famous place for 
pork. “ Porkopolis,” or city of pork, 
it is sometimes called, as the killing 
and packing of hogs is the chief 
business. Nearly a million are 
killed every year—more than in any other place except Chicago. There are great fact¬ 
ories of other things too, especially for beer making. Most of the breweries are in a 


































Cleveland. 


421 

part of the city called “ Over the Rhine,” inhabited almost entirely by Germans. The 
population of Cincinnati is about the same as St. Louis, and one quarter of the people 
are Germans. The city is surrounded by beautiful hills, and the river flowing by it is 
crossed by two fine bridges. The plan of the streets and squares is much like that of 
Philadelphia; the roads are usually paved or macadamized, planted with trees, and sub¬ 
stantially built up with brick. 



SOUTHERN HOTEL, ST. LOUIS. 

Next to the Porkopolis of Ohio is the Forest City of Cleveland. It has a popula¬ 
tion of about a hundred and seventy-five thousand people, whose interest is centered 
chiefly in the great petroleum refineries, or in commercial and other business brought over 
Lake Erie, and extending up the Cuyahoga River, which empties here. Cleveland is ' 
one of the best ports on the lake; the trade in coal, iron ore, petroleum and grain being 
very large; and the river supplies water power for factories for making sulphuric acid, 
railroad cars, farmers’ tools and other valuable articles of shipment. The center of the 
regular lines of tree-lined streets crossing at right angles is Monumental Park, beauti¬ 
fully shaded and carefully kept. The handsomest portion of town is on the high sandy 




















































422 


Cities of the World. 

bluff on the east side of the river. On the other bank there is another fine park called 
the Circle; this has a beautiful fountain in the center. The public improvements, 
charitable institutions and city buildings, schools and churches of Cleveland are of re¬ 
markable excellence. 

Next in population among western cities is Louisville, Kentucky, of about a 
hundred and fifty thousand. It is the largest city of the State, and nearly the size of 
Newark, New Jersey, and like it, rests on a plain, with hills in the background and a 
river—the Ohio—in front. The stream on which Louisville stands, is here broken into 
rapids, making a fine water power, that is as yet little used. An important business is 
sugar-curing hams and pork packing, while no place in the world has such quantities of 



THE ST. LOUIS BRIDGE. 


leaf-tobacco as are brought in and shipped from here to Germany, France, England, 
Canada and different parts of the United States. 

The best harbor on any of the great lakes is at Detroit, Michigan. This is part 
of the Detroit River, which receives the waters of Lake St. Clair above, and empties into 
Lake Erie, eighteen miles below. The river is very deep and broad here, and the city 
—the largest in Michigan—extends along its banks for six or seven miles. The water 
front is crowded with warehouses, mills, foundries, grain elevators, railway stations, ship¬ 
yards and dry docks, telling you at first glance what branches of trade bring wealth to 
the people who live here. The shipping interests are mostly with United States ports 
on the Lakes and with Canada, which lies on the other shore of the river. Detroit is a 
great northern railway center and transfer station, and one of our most important 
lumber markets. The streets are remarkably broad, the business houses are solid and 















9 


Milwaukee. 


423 


imposing, and some of the dwellings, surrounded by gardens and shaded by trees, are 
elegant and co&fly. A very large part of the population, which is about a hundred and 
twenty-five thousand, are foreigners, chiefly Germans. 

A port of about the same size and importance on Lake Michigan is Milkauwee, 
the largest city in Wisconsin. The harbor and town are always full of life and activity, 
especially around the wharves and the grain and flour warehouses. This is the greatest 
wheat market in the world, and is the port of shipment for the agricultural products of 
Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. The business center is in the heart of the city along 



GOLDEN GATE, SAN FRANCISCO. 


the Milwaukee and Menomonee rivers. The Milwaukee gives excellent water power 
for manufacturing; the mills are situated on a ship canal running alongside, and their 
wares are loaded directly into the lake-going steamers. Iron and rolling mills are the 
most numerous and important; after them come extensive flour mills, breweries and 
tanneries. The higher parts on the east and west are occupied by dwelling houses. 
Nearly all the buildings are of cream-colored brick, manufactured in the neighborhood. 
This makes the most ordinary parts of the city look handsome; while the Court-house 
of sandstone, the Custom-house and the Post-office both of marble, and some others of 
the more pretentious buildings are really elegant. 












Cities of the Wortd. 


424 


The metropolis of North America’s Pacific slope is San Francisco. It is the capi¬ 
tal and largest city in California, with one of the finest and most beautiful harbors in 
the world. The entrance from the ocean is through a passage about a mile wide, called 
the Golden Gate. This is between the long peninsula occupied by the city and an arm 
of land that runs down on the north; together these form the barrier separating the 



NOB HILL, SAN FRANCISCO. 

open sea from the river mouths that form the bay. San Francisco owes its importance 
to this harbor, which is visited by hundreds of ships from the Oriental countries, from 
Europe, and ports on both sides the American continent. The foreign trade is very 
large. The principal things sent out are grain, flour, wool, wines and quicksilver; the 
chief imports are tea from China, lumber from Oregon, coal from Australia, Van¬ 
couver’s Island and England, and sugar, rice and coffee from various countries. There 
is also a very great trade by the Pacific Railroad, which has its western end near the 
city. The plan of these great overland railways, binding the Union from ocean to ocean, 
and connecting the interests of all our States, was laid here at the times when acts of 
secession were passed at the opposite seaboard. Many of the great mines of California and 
Nevada are owned by San Francisco merchants,some of whom are among the richest men in 










San Francisco. 


the world. The city of ’Frisco, 
as it is often called, occupies the 
peninsula that lies between the 
harbor and the sea, which was 
barren and rocky, but has been 
levelled and improved by much 
skill and great expense. The 
streets are laid out in regular 
squares, closely built up in the 
business portion, but quite 
scattered in other places. The 
fashionable promenades are 
lined with the leading retail 
stores; and in about a dozen 
streets the buildings are re¬ 
markably fine and substantial, 
but in other quarters the arch¬ 
itecture is of wood, sometimes 
lavishly ornamented. Every¬ 
thing has a brisk, prosperous 
appearance, and the people are 
full of energy and push. There 
are no shade trees, but the 
yards around the better houses 
are quite gorgeous in flowers 
and evergreens. A great many 
of the people, even in families, 
live at the hotels. So there are 
a great many very fine estab¬ 
lishments throughout the city. 
The Palace Hotel is said to be 
the largest and one of the most 
magnificent in the world, and 
many others are both stately in 
appearance and luxuriously ar¬ 
ranged. The most interesting 
quarter of the city is Chinatown. 
Here twenty thousand China- 


425 



CHINESE QUARTER, SAN FRANCISCO. 



































426 


Cities of the World. 


men are crowded into a limited space, and live as they do at home. Their national 
customs have all been imported, from every-day living with chop-sticks for knife and 
fork, to the pagoda-like theaters and joss-houses, with opium dens and gambling 
houses. 

This is an important flour market; large exports are made of tobacco and other 
products, and immense numbers of oysters from the Chesapeake are carried here and 
shipped to all parts of the world. 

The chief city of the lower Mississippi, and our main port for the Gulf of Mexico, 
is New Orleans, once capital of Louisiana. In size and population it is the ninth city 
of the Union, but in the value of its exports and foreign commerce, it comes next to 
New York. It comprises about forty square miles; but one half of these is little better 



CITY HALL, SAN FRANCISCO. 

than a swamp; the other half is closely inhabited. There are altogether about two 
hundred and fifty thousand people here, a mingled gathering of Americans and Germans, 
French, Italians, Spanish and Irish. Most of the streets running parallel to the river 
extend for about twelve miles in unbroken lines; while the cross streets run at right 
angles to these from the river to the lake. Those in the new parts are wide, bordered 
with trees, and Canal Street has many handsome stores and dwellings. As New Orleans 
is built on rather a long, narrow strip along the curves of the river, it has an S shape; but 
at one time it was only extensive enough to follow the outer curve, from which it re¬ 
ceived the name of the Crescent City. The streets have ditches running through them, 
by which the drainage is carried off in the freshet season; but they are unsightly, and it 
is said, unhealthful at all other times. There are, beside these, a number of canals for 
business use in the city connecting with some of the fifteen markets. There is more 
cotton sold here than in any other city in America, and very extensive trade is also 
carried on in sugar and rice. The wharves at the river levee are always crowded with 




New Orleans . 


427 

cotton brought from all parts of the Lower Mississippi Valley, where it is packed into 
bales by great presses, and loaded on vessels to be sent to Europe and the Northern 
States. Sugar is stored in immense sugar-sheds, where it is heaped up like coal in a 
coal yard. Between Christmas and Lent the greatest carnival in the United States is 



NEW ORLEANS. 


held here. The grand procession takes place on Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday, when 
hundreds of people, dressed to look like animals, goblins and all sorts of fantastic 
creatures, march through the streets with music and torches, and setting off fire-works 
as they go along. Beside this, the festival is kept up in balls, parties, concerts and 
other masqueradings outdoors and in. 































. - . V 

. 

. 
















































































1 













































































































































■ 
































ILLUSTRATIONS. 




PAGE 


PAGE 

Russia:— 



England:— 


St. Petersburg . 

9 

London, Tower of. 

47 

<< 

Street Scene . . 

IO 

Liverpool, Prince’s Landing 

46 

<< 

The Neva . . . 

ii 

“ Strand Street . . . 

48 

<« 

Exchange . . . 

12 

“ Brown Free Library 


U 

Academy of Sciences 

14 

and Museum 

49 

Moscow, Kremlin. 

13 

“ Perch Rock Light 

50 

<< 

Statue Peter the Great 

15 

Manchester, Free Trade Hall . 

5i 

<< 

Czar Kolokol . . . 

l6 

a The Assize Courts 

52 

u 

Church in .... 

17 

“ Interior Royal Ex¬ 


<< 

Great Theater . . . 

l8 

change .... 

53 

<> 

Winter Palace . . . 


“ Royal Exchange . 

54 

Nijni Novgorod . 

21 

Birmingham, King Edward 


Russian Types . 

23 

School .... 

55 

Riga . 


24 

“ Town Hall . . . 

56 

Penal Colony . 

26 

“ White Cloth Hall . 

57 

Odessa 


27 

Bradford, Town Hall .... 

58 

England:— 



Rugby, School Days .... 

59 

London 

Bridge. 

31 

Cambridge, Bridge, St. John’s 


<» 

Waterloo Bridge . . . 

32 

College .... 

60 

u 

Houses of Parliament . 

33 

“ Senate House . . 

61 

(< 

Westminster Abbey . . 

35 - 

France:— 


(< 

Royal Exchange . . . 

37 ' 

Paris, Along the Seine .... 

62 

u 

St. James’s Palace Gate 

38 

Old Paris . 

63 

<« 

New Law Courts . . 

39 

Paris, Arc De L’Etoile . . . 

64 

(( 

Museum, South Ken¬ 


j i Boulevard Saint Michel . 

6 5 


sington . 

4i 

“ Boulevard Montmartre . 

65 

(( 

St. Paul’s Church . . 

42 

u Hotel Des Invalides . . 

67 

a 

Tower of St. Paul’s 

44 

“ Napoleon’s Tomb . . . 

67 

a 

Interior of St. Paul’s . 

45 

“ Palace of Industry . . 

69 



















430 


Illustrations. 




PAGE 




PAGE 

France:— 



France:— 




Paris, 

Place de la Concorde . . 

70 

Nimes, Maison Carree 



IOI 

<< 

Interior of the Madeleine 

71 

Bordeaux . 



103 

a 

The Madeleine .... 

71 

Havre. 



io 5 

u 

Place Vendome . . . . 

72 

Rouen, Palace of Justice 



106 

a 

Garden of the Tuileries . 

73 

Germany:— 




u 

The Louvre. 

74 

Berlin, Thiergarten 



109 

a 

Gallery in the Louvre . 

74 

“ The Schloss . 



115 

<< 

Bridge of Arts .... 

75 

“ Emperor’s Palace 



119 


Pont au Change . . . 

76 

“ Street Scene . 



123 

<( 

Rue de Rivoli and Tower 


Cafe Scene 



127 


of St. Jacques . . . 

77 

“ Frederick Street . 



1 3 1 

u 

Palais Royal Place . . 

78 

Hamburg, Canal . 



133 

« 

Palais Royal Garden . . 

79 

‘ Marketwoman 



i 34 

a 

Interior of the Bourse 


“ Spring Floods 



i 35 


(Stock Exchange) . . 

80 

Munich, The “ Bavaria ” 

and 


a 

Theatre Franfaise . . . 

81 

Hall of Fame . 



i 39 

<< 

Opera House .... 

82 

Frankfort, Luther’s House 



•141 

u 

Grand Staircase, Opera 


Cologne, Bridge of Boats 



i 43 


House. 

83 

Leipsic, Town Hall . 



J 45 

<< 

Saint Denis Gate . . 

84 

Heidelberg,. 



147 

(< 

Saint Martin Gate . . . 

84 

Scandinavia:— 




<< 

Sewers. 

85 

Copenhagen . 

. 


149 

<< 

The Catacombs . . . 

85 

Swedish Types and Costumes 


J 53 

« 

Halles Centrales . . . 

86 

Netherlands: — 




a 

Notre Dame. 

87 

Amsterdam. 



i 57 

u 

Hotel Dieu. 

88 

Rotterdam. 



i 59 

a 

Tribunal of Commerce . 

89 

Holland, Street Scene 



163 

u 

Hotel De Ville .... 

9 1 

Belgium: — 




u 

Types and Costumes . . 

9 2 

Quay. 



i 6 5 

<< 

Belle Jardiniere . . . 

93 

Home Work. 



167 

u 

New Bridge. 

93 

Brussels, Town Hall . . 



169 

Lyons . 

94 

Bruges, Street Scene . 



171 

Marseilles. 

97 

“ Belfry .... 



i 73 

U 

Longchamps Fountain 

99 

Ypres, Town Hall . 



i 75 

U 

Notre Dame de la 


Switzerland:— 





Garde. 

100 

Jungfrau from Interlaken 


9 

177 

Nimes, Amphitheater .... 

101 

Geneva, Lake and City . 

• 

• 

178 



















Illustrations. 


Switzerland :— 

Geneva, Memorial Hall . . . 

Berne, Street Scene .... 
Ireland:— 

Queenstown. 

Lakes of Killarney .... 
Belfast, Donegal Place . . . 

“ Castle Place .... 
Dublin, Four Courts .... 
“ Custom House . . . 

Scotland:— 

Edinburgh, City Keys . . . 

“ City. 

“ Royal Exchange . 

“ Bank of Scotland 

“ Weather .... 

Glasgow. 

Spain:— 

Madrid, Statue Philip IV. . . 

“ Bull Fighting 
“ National Dance . 
Malaga, Port and Cathedral 

Seville. 

Granada, The Alhambra . . . 

Italy:— 

Rome, Bridge of St. Angelo and 

the Borgo. 

“ The Capitol .... 

“ Pyramid of Caius Cestius 

“ Coliseum by Moonlight . 

“ In the Forum .... 

“ Tombs in the Catacombs 

“ Sistine Chapel .... 

“ Peasant Children . 

Naples, Bay. 

Florence, Leaning Tower of Pisa 
“ Loggia de’ Lanzi . . 

“ The Campanile . . 


431 

PAGE 

Italy:— 

Florence, Ponte Vecchio . . . 241 

“ Chapel of the Medici . 243 

Venice, Bridge of Sighs . . . 24s 

“ The Canal .... 245 

“ St. Marks.246 

“ Doge’s Palace . . . 247 

Austria-Hungary:— 

Vienna, Belvedere Palace . . 249 

“ Town Hall and Parlia¬ 
ment Buildings . . 251 

“ The Jews’ Quarter . . 255 

“ St. Stephen’s Church. 257 

Prague.265 

The Levant:— 

Constantinople, a Harem Window 267 
“ Fountain St. Sophia 268 

“ The Bosphorus. . 271 

“ Mussulman Woman 272 

“ Tower in Bosphorus 273 

“ 274 

Cairo, Street Scene . . . . 281 

Alexandria, Place Mohammed 

Ali.287 

India:— 

Bedouin and Fellah .... 288 

Dak-Ghari Traveling .... 289 

Temple and Sacred Elephant . 290 


Palace of the Seths .... 291 

Parsee Children.293 

At School.294 

Tomb at Ahar.295 

Mosque at Benares .... 297 

Hindoo Idols.299 

China:— 

Pekin, High Street .... 301 


Hong Kong, Street Scene . . 303 

A Family Dinner.307 


PAGE 

179 

l8l 

184 

185 

l86 

186 

187 

l88 

189 

I9O 

I 9 I 

192 

193 

193 

I96 

197 

199 

201 

205 

208 

217 

219 

219 

220 

222 

223 

225 

227 

23O 

236 

237 

239 




















432 


Illustrations. 





PAGE 


PAGE 

China:— 




New York City.— 


Canton, Street Scene . . 



3°9 

Five Points Mission House . 

35 6 

Modes of Torture . 



3 n 

Sixth Avenue at 14th Street 

357 

Temple of the Gods . •. 



3 i 3 

College of City of New York . 

358 

The Great Wall . . . 



3 i 5 

Bowery and Grand Street . . 

359 

Mutual Assistance . . . 



316 

Grand Central Depot .... 

36° 

Woman’s Shoe and Model 

of 


Central Park, Skating Pond . . 

361 

Foot. 



3 i 7 

“ Promenade . . 

362 

Chinese Children . . . 



318 

“ Terrace . . . 

3*>3 

Japan:— 




“ Vinery near Casino 

364 

Yokohama, Street in . . 



3 J 9 

“ Arsenal and Men¬ 


Tattooed Man . . . . 



3 2 ° 

agerie 

365 

Woman and Child . . . 



3 2 ° 

“ Music Stand . 

365 

Christmas Celebration 



3 21 

Bridge connecting Brooklyn and New 


Tokio, Traveling in . 



3 2 3 

York. 

366 

Street Ballad Singer . . 



3 2 4 

Niagara Falls. 

367 

Domestic Altar of the Gods . 


3 2 5 

Erie Canal. 

369 

Domestic Scene . . . 



326 

Albany, State Capitol. 

37 i 

Canada:— 




Boston:— 


Montreal. 



333 

Fanueil Hall. 

373 

Section of Victoria Bridge 



334 

Washington Statue .... 

374 

Canadian Amusements . 



335 

New (old) South Church . . 

375 

Quebec. 



337 

Commonwealth Avenue . 

376 

“ Street Scene . . 



338 

State Street . 

377 

Mexico. 



340 

State House. 

378 

New York City:— 




Post Office. 

379 

New York Harbor . . . 



342 

City Hall. 

380 

City Hall. 



343 

Trinity Church. 

381 

Barge Office. 



344 

Christian Association .... 

382 

Bartholdi’s Statue . . . 



345 

Liberty Tree. 

383 

Western Union Building . 



347 

Conservatory of Music . . . 

384 

Old Post Office .... 



348 

Harvard College. 

385 

New Post Office . . . 



349 

Providence. 

386 

New Court House . . . 



352 

Hartford, Capitol. 

389 

New York Herald and 

Park 


Philadelphia: — 


Bank. 



353 

Friends’ Meeting House . . . 

39 ° 

New York Tribune . . 



354 

Burial Ground. 

39 i 

Academy of Design . . 



355 

Ridgway Library. 

39 2 





























Illustrations . 


433 


Philadelphia:— 

Delaware River. 

Independence Hall . . . . 
Public Ledger Building . . . 

Fairmount Park. 

Washington:— 

White House. 

Capitol. 

Senate Chamber. 

Chicago:— 

Post Office and Custom House . 

Michigan Avenue. 

Central Music Hall . . . . 
Court House and City Hall . 
Lasalle Street Tunnel . . . 

Wabash Avenue. 

Board of Trade. 

Tribune Building. 

Water Works Tower . . . . 


PAGE 

Chicago.— 

Palmer House.414 

St. Louis:— 

Custom House and Post Office . 415 

Court House.416 

Lindell Hotel.417 

Fourth Street.418 

Republican Building . . . . 419 

Opera House . . . . . 420 

Fair Grounds.420 

Southern Hotel.421 

Bridge at.422 

San Francisco:— 

Golden Gate.423 

Nob Hill.424 

Chinese Quarter.425 

City Hall.426 

New Orleans.427 


PAGE 

393 

394 

395 

396 

402 

403 

404 

406 

407 

408 

409 

410 

410 

411 

412 

4i3 


































































































THE GREAT CITIES OF THE 
ANCIENT 1VORLD. 


By Helen Ainslie Smith (“ Hazel Shepard ’ ). With one hundred and 
five illustrations. Handsome lithographed double 
cover. 4to, boards, $1.50. 


“ ‘ The Great Cities of the Ancient World; 
a companion volume to the ‘Great 
Cities of the Modern World,’ which we 
had occasion to commend. Lifelike de¬ 
scriptions are given of the external as¬ 
pects and the character of the chief 
ancient towns and cities in the time of 
their prosperity and splendor, and also 
of the association of such places with 
persons and events of historical impor¬ 
tance.”— Courant , Hartford. 

“ The illustrations, aiming to repre¬ 
sent the cities of antiquity as they ap¬ 
peared at their prime and the costumes 
of their inhabitants, are numerous and 
striking. ... A BODY OF USE¬ 
FUL INFORMATION. . . ."—New 
York Sun. 

“A capital book for the young is 
( Great Cities of the Ancient World,’ a 
spirited presentation with pen and with 
pencil of the striking features of the fa¬ 
mous old cities of allusions to which 
history and literature are full. . . . 

IT IS WELL WRITTEN AND VERY 
FULLY AND FINELY ILLUSTRAT¬ 
ED THROUGHOUT. . . . The volume 
will help young readers to a clear idea of 
what Rome and Athens and Thebes and 
Damascus and many another antique town 


was really like, and it should be in the 
library of every school boy and school 
girl.” — Boston Courier. 

“ ‘ The Great Cities of the Anchnt 
World ’ contains a great deal of infor¬ 
mation—historical, geographical and 
biographical. Nearly 70 cities of an¬ 
tiquity are described in a lively way, 
with anecdotes of their noted inhabitants. 
The book is made up with a good deal 
of care. ... As a real help to some 
knowledge of ancient history this work 
has received warm commendation from 
excellent teachers, and it might lighten 
the tasks of many pupils who do not 
take kindly to the usual text-books of 
ancient history.”— Boston Daily Adver¬ 
tiser. 

“ ‘ The Great Cities of the Ancient World * 
gives the latest fruits of antiquarian re¬ 
search respecting the principal cities of 
Italy, Asia Minor, Greece, Egypt, the 
Colonies and Islands of the Mediterra¬ 
nean Sea, Arabia, Persia, Syria and Mes¬ 
opotamia. By aid of numerous illustra¬ 
tions the young reader is helped to a 
very satisfactory acquaintance with the 
centres of interest and influence in the 
ancient world.”— Journal of Education , 
Boston. 


For sale by all booksellers , or will be sent , prepaid , on receipt of price , by the publishers , 
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, 9 Lafayette Place, New York. 






THE GREAT CITIES OF THE 
MODERN WORLD. 


By Helen Ainslie Smith (“ Hazel Shepard ”). With two hundred and 
seventy illustrations. Handsome lithographed double 
cover. 4to, boards, $1.50, 


“ ‘ The Great Cities of the Modern World' by 
Helen Ainslie Smith, is an admirable book. 
IT IS A BRILLIANT BOOK OF ITS KIND, 
and few persons who open its first pages on the 
cities of Russia will lay it down until they have 
at least looked through it, section by section— 
England, France, Germany, and all the rest of 
the nations of the earth, down to the United 
States of America. All the great cities of the 
world are here described in a series of panoramic 
paragraphs, and all are depicted by a greater or 
less variety of wood-cuts showing streets in 
action, parks in peacefulness, and public build¬ 
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ing matter, though succinct, is reasonably accu¬ 
rate and satisfactory, and, with the pictures, gives 
true and graphic ideas. An uncommon amount 
of pleasure and profit may be had from the book, 
and WE WONDER THAT WE HAVE NEVER 
HAD ONE LIKE IT BEFORE.” — Literary 
World , Boston. 

“ The Great Cities of the Modern World is a copi¬ 
ously illustrated volume in which is given a concise 
description of the chief cities of the various civil¬ 
ized countries of the world, and also some ac¬ 
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It will give some idea of the scope of the book 
if we say that it describes and illustrates five 
cities in Russia, thirteen in England, eleven in 
Germany, eight in Italy, nine in China, and thirty- 
eight in the United States. Many cities in many 
other countries are also described. THE TEXT 
OF THIS BOOK IS WELL WRITTEN, AND 
THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE ACCURATE 
REPRESENTATIONS OF SCENES, CHAR¬ 
ACTERS AND ARCHITECTURE.”— Courant, 
Hartford. 


“ . . . Under the title ‘ Great Cities of the Modern 
World’ George Routledge & Sons have published 
a very interesting volume, in which every me¬ 
tropolis of note on either side of the Atlantic is 
described in a most instructive manner. IT IS 
AN EXCELLENT BOOK FOR THE YOUNG, 
inasmuch as it affords an insight into the in¬ 
tellectual, commercial, manufacturing and archi¬ 
tectural features of the great centres with which 
it deals. The cities are grouped according to 
their size and importance. THE ILLUSTRA¬ 
TIONS, WHICH ARE MANY IN NUMBER, 
depict the most notable buildings, localities and 
art features of each place. ... A BOOK 
WHICH MAY BE READ BY YOUNG AND 
OLD WITH EQUAL INTEREST, AND ONE, 
ALSO, THAT FILLS A VOID OCCUPIED BY 
NO OTHER WORK OF ITS KIND.”— Saturday 
Evening Gazette , Boston. 

“A book which is calculated to give much 
pleasure and instruction. It is a collection of the 
best cuts of well-known buildings and views in 
all the large cities of the globe, supplemented by 
concise descriptions and explanations embodv- 
ing much history and general information. TO 
BRIGHT BOYS AND GIRLS THE VOLUME 
WILL BE THE NEXT BEST THING TO A 
TRIP ROUND THE WORLD. To older people, 
unable to purchase costly books of travel, it will 
be a gratifying hand-book for reference and study, 
and to those who have travelled and seen the 
cities of Europe and the East for themselves its. 
pictures—many of which are taken from recent 
photographs—will be agreeable reminders of past 
pleasures. Any one thinking of sending a useful 
Christmas book to a country boy or girl whose 
chances of library reading are small may well 
examine this volume.”— Daily Advertiser , Boston. 


For sale by all booksellers , or will be sent , prepaid, on receipt of price , by the publishers , 
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, 9 Lafayette Place, New York. 









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